2014 Zombie Survival Shooter Unturned (opens in new tab) is currently trending, breaking the eight-year concurrent players record with a whopping 93,161 players on October 4th. There are now over 50,000 players participating, and this weekend’s peak matches the launch peak of over 60,000. (Thanks for the stats. SteamDB).
Any idea why this happens? Some major update? A showcase of his popular Twitch streamers? none of that. It’s free, fun, and has been consistently updated for eight years. Play competitively, cooperatively, or play alone. that’s it. That’s Dietz.
But it’s worth noting for that. Unturned is back in the top 15 most played games on Steam. (opens in new tab) In Cyberpunk 2077, Vin Diesel backed ARK: Survival Evolved and the ever-popular Grand Theft Auto V.
Unturned, a cute little Unity project by Smartly Dressed Games, aka 16-year-old Nelson Sexton, first released in 2014 and reached a shocking (at the time) 24 million downloads. It combines the then-fashionable blocky aesthetic with the equally popular open-world zombie he survival, with chunky shooting and crafting.
Unturned is free, but Sexton’s work is fueled by silly in-game cosmetic purchases like gold top hats, swords, and biohazard suits. The community seems to like him a lot and even after all these years he still posts bugs on the Steam forums with sign-offs like “Nelson pls fix when u can”. Of course there is some rudeness, but definitely less than on many other gaming forums.
PC gamers spilled a lot of ink on Unturned in 2016-2017, and the content still holds up today. Unturned: See How A Survival Game Created By A 16-Year-Old Boy Hits His 24 Million Downloads (opens in new tab) And a year later follow up on what it’s like to create one of Steam’s most popular games at just 20 years old. (opens in new tab)
discoverable Unturned for free on Steam. (opens in new tab)
