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Dead Island 2 shambles to 7 million players in over a year

The island may be dead, but the player base sure ain't.

Justin Carter, Contributing Editor

May 8, 2024

1 Min Read
A zombie in Dead Island 2.
Image via Dambuster Studios/Deep Silver.

At a Glance

  • Dead Island 2 was already a near-instant success, so the new milestone shows it's got a long, undead life ahead.

In the year since Dead Island 2's launch, the game has amassed "well over" 7 million players.

Developer Dambuster Studios revealed the milestone in celebration of the game's first birthday. Similarly, those players have taken out 24 billion zombies across PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and PC.

"All of us at Dambuster Studios are humbled and thrilled by the outstanding response of our passionate slayers!" it wrote. "It’s been a truly memorable year for the Dead Island franchise."

It's unclear how that translates to sales, but the game was successful almost immediately. It opened to 1 million copies sold in its opening weekend, and 2 million within a month.

Likewise, Dambuster didn't highlight a particular system it did well on, though it recently arrived on Steam this past April. It was previously an Epic Games Store exclusive, and a successful one, at that.

The game certainly surpassed Deep Silver's (and by extension, Embracer's) expectations. That's impressive, considering the long, troubled path it took for Dead Island 2 to see the light of undead day.

The first Dead Island had a decent tail behind it with an standalone expansion and spinoff. Dead Island 2 already has two expansions released, and Dambuster has said it plans to "provide ongoing support across all platforms."

About the Author(s)

Justin Carter

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.

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