Dead Island 2 Reaches 20M Players, While Next Installment Is Already in Development

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Key points
- Dead Island 2 has surpassed the milestone of 20 million players.
- The game sold 1 million units in three days after its release, and by February 2025, it had sold 4 million units.
- Dead Island 3 will become the fourth major installment in the series.
Dead Island 2 has surpassed 20 million players, and the next installment of the franchise is already in the works, according to an official announcement from the game’s publisher, Deep Silver and developing entity Dambuster Studios, dated Sept. 9, 2025.
A sequel to 2011’s Dead Island and the third major installment in the series, it was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on April 21, 2023, and later for macOS PC on July 24, 2025. The console version of the game has been available on Game Pass since Feb. 21, 2024, and the PC version since Oct. 31, 2024.
Dead Island 2 takes place in Los Angeles in the midst of a zombie apocalypse about 15 years after the events of Dead Island, when the US military is forced to place the city under a full quarantine zone due to a new and stronger zombie outbreak. The game allows players to control one of six playable characters called Slayers.
The game sold 1 million units in three days after its release, and by February 2025, it had sold 4 million units.
As of the time of writing, Dead Island 2 has a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam with 10,884 reviews and an all-time peak of 12,094 concurrent players, according to SteamDB.