Huge creative freedom in building
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“If you can dream it, you can build it — from realistic enclosures to full-on fantasy zoos.”
Steam review · 165.6 h played ↗
Planet Zoo
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 91%Very Positive · 91%Frontier Developments2019Management · Sandbox · Simulation
The verdict
A deep, gorgeous zoo builder with detailed animals and near-limitless creativity, held back by clunky building and pathing and costly DLC. Skip it if you want a simple, relaxing tycoon.
Great for
Animal lovers and patient builders who enjoy creative freedom, Zoo Tycoon nostalgia and detailed management
Main risk
Clunky building and path tools plus a steep learning curve can turn the game into frustrating work
What players love
Detailed, lifelike and cute animals
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Every lion, elephant, penguin, or tiny chameleon looks and behaves like a living creature.”
Steam review · 911.1 h played ↗
Worthy Zoo Tycoon successor
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“I grew up on Zoo Tycoon and this game is a more advanced and beautiful version.”
Steam review · 283.4 h played ↗
Relaxing and addictive for hours
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“Really fun if you like a chill game you can sit and play for hours listening to your favorite music.”
Steam review · 72.9 h played ↗
Great community, Workshop and DLC content
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“The community is great, the Workshop content is endless”
Steam review · 165.6 h played ↗
Deep, realistic management and animal welfare
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews
“The management layer is where the game truly shines — deep, detailed, and just crunchy enough that every decision feels meaningful without becoming overwhelming.”
Steam review · 20.3 h played ↗
What players complain about
Clunky, unintuitive building and pathing
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews
“One of the worst building systems I've ever seen, if you want to build something yourself and not copy paste from workshop you have to literally build it brick by brick while fighting the editor every single step of the way”
Steam review · 20.1 h played ↗
Steep learning curve and poor tutorial
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“the tutorial is a nightmare and doesnt explain anything understandable at all”
Steam review · 22 h played ↗
Expensive DLC and paywalled animals
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“At current prices the base game is £34.99, and the DLC would cost an extra £177 to purchase, which feels genuinely insane to me.”
Steam review · 54.6 h played ↗
Camera and control problems
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“I've spent 45-minutes trying to figure out how to rotate the camera.”
Steam review · 0.8 h played ↗
Bugs and broken staff pathing
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“The bugs with staff pathing completely ruins the game.”
Steam review · 21.4 h played ↗
Micromanagement feels like work
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews
“After a few hours it felt more like work than a game.”
Steam review · 12.1 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable16 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit
ProcessorIntel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)
Storage16 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 10 64bit
ProcessorIntel i7-4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Memory16 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB)
Storage16 GB available space
OSWindows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit
ProcessorIntel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)
Storage16 GB available space
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