Planet Zoo 2’s first week: record crowds, two patches, and critics are all in

One week after launch, Planet Zoo 2 is looking like one of the strongest releases of the year. Frontier says player numbers were “well above our expectations,” two patches have already landed, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Here’s how week one went down.

Record-breaking crowds

The game launched October 13 on PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S — and players showed up in force. Frontier confirmed concurrent player numbers were “well above our expectations,” which is about as strong an opening week signal as a studio can give. With 130+ species, first-ever aquariums and aviaries, and the new Wildlife Reserves, there’s a lot of zoo to go around.

Two patches in three days

Launch wasn’t flawless — Frontier has been refreshingly honest that general stability “has been below what we would expect.” But they’re moving fast. Update 1.0.4 arrived October 14, fixing FSR/DLSS issues, custom keybindings resetting, several crashes, and Franchise Mode stability. Then Update 1.0.5 followed October 16 with more Franchise Mode fixes, the restored edge-scrolling option, increased server capacity, more animals in the trading market, balanced male/female births, and a longer login window to cut down timeouts. That’s a healthy response for week one.

The critics are in

Reviews are strong across the board: Metacritic 85 on PC (15 reviews) and OpenCritic 84 with 90% of critics recommending. IGN gave it 9/10, calling it a “vibrant and thriving sequel,” Destructoid went 95, and Push Square matched IGN at 9/10. The outlier is PC Gamer’s 60 — they say the animals are the superstars but the micromanagement gets fiddly. Fair enough, but they’re outnumbered.

Physical discs this week

Digital players have been in the zoo since day one, but the physical editions arrive October 20 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Standard is $49.99, Deluxe runs $64.99.

KongMNG’s take

Two patches in the first three days and an honest apology about stability? That’s a studio that respects its players. Record crowds, near-universal praise, and discs on shelves this week — Planet Zoo 2 survived launch week and came out looking like a contender for the year’s best builder. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have hours of zookeeping ahead.