Project Zomboid: Extremely complex survival game grows and thrives

The survival game Project Zomboid is not only home to masses of undead, but also to more and more active players.

Such a zombie apocalypse is no pony farm, the developers of Project Zomboid probably thought so too. In the isometric survival role-playing game by The Indie Stone, you have to make the best of your hopeless situation.

To do this, you have more complex game mechanics at your disposal than in almost any other survival game. Extensive base building, a system for injuries, even boredom is simulated!

Project Zomboid is a veteran of the Early Access programme on Steam, the playable development has been running for almost eight years now. And more and more players are catching on: Especially in the last few months, the niche survival title has been able to gain decent momentum – not only because of the new cars in the game.

Steadily growing player numbers

If you look at the average player numbers on Steam, the steady upward trend of the last two years immediately jumps to mind. While in September 2019 there were still just under 700 simultaneously active players playing Project Zomboid, the community gradually grew more and more.

By August 2021, the average was already over 5,000 players. On 23 August, Project Zomboid reached its previous high of 8,534 concurrent survival fans. The fact that more and more players are becoming aware of the title is also related to the increased interest among influencers.

PZ is becoming more and more present on Twitch: Streamers like Klean, who specialises in survival shooters, but also major Korean influencers are presenting the game to a large audience. This also has an effect on live player numbers.

Community on the rise

Player numbers are one measure of a community’s activity. Another is the users in the Project Zomboid subreddit. This forum has also experienced a sharp increase in members in recent years.

While there is no official trailer of an actual release, we can recommend this entertaining video from YouTuber “Ambiguousamphibian”: