Zombies Aren't Real for PC: Download, Mods & Requirements

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Zombies Aren’t Real on PC. Click to open it full size.

Zombies Aren’t Real is a horde-defense strategy game for PC from Jogamedev, available on Steam. You get a bird’s eye view of a city and a little time to prepare. Then a zombie outbreak starts, and you place troops, walls and safe zones to save as many civilians as you can.

The setting is what makes it different. Every map is a real city built from public map data, down to the streets, rivers and bridges. You can defend places like New York and Amsterdam, or load a map of your own town from the Steam Workshop.

It launched in Early Access on November 13, 2026, and the developer plans version 1.0 for early 2027. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, plays with mouse and keyboard, and supports two-player online co-op.

Already defending your city? Tell us which map gave you the most trouble. Got questions before buying? Reach out to us directly.

What You Need to Know

It is in Early Access. The developer says there is a few hours of content now, with more units coming before 1.0.
You can play solo or with one friend in online co-op.
It is sold on Steam only. It is not on the Epic Games Store or GOG.
Player-made city maps and rule mods are on the Steam Workshop.
It runs on modest PCs: Steam asks for a GTX 750 Ti and 2 GB of space.

Table of Contents

Quick Facts

Planning phase over Amsterdam's canals with the Mortar stats panel open and the deploy, civilians and build menus listed along the bottom

Get the Game:

Buy on Steam Check on Boosteroid

Price	$9.99
Released	November 13, 2026 (Early Access)
Developer	Jogamedev
Publisher	Jogamedev
Genre	Horde-defense strategy
Players	Solo, or 2-player online co-op
Store	Steam
Platform	Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
Controls	Mouse and keyboard
Languages	English
Mods	Steam Workshop maps and mutators

How to Download Zombies Aren’t Real on Windows

Zombies Aren’t Real is on Steam only, and it needs just 2 GB of space.

Step 1. Install Steam. Get Steam and sign in.
Step 2. Open the store page. Go to Zombies Aren’t Real on Steam.
Step 3. Buy the game. Click Add to Cart and check out.
Step 4. Install it from your Steam library.
Step 5. Pick a city and start your first mission.

Playing co-op? Your friend needs their own copy. On an older PC, the developer suggests choosing Low in the graphics settings.

Zombies Aren’t Real Price and Editions

Zombies Aren’t Real costs $9.99 on Steam, with regional pricing in other countries. The base game is all you need: the only add-on is an optional, visual-only Supporter Pack.

Base Game

$9.99

Every city mission in the game
Online co-op for two players
Level editor and Steam Workshop maps
Future Early Access updates

Supporter Pack (DLC)

$4.99

Visual only, no gameplay changes
Unlocks toy nukes to launch at the globe on the main menu
A way to fund development, on Steam

💡 Your PC is too weak? Cloud gaming is an option. Check on Boosteroid.

What Is Zombies Aren’t Real?

Zombies Aren’t Real plays like a mix of tower defense and an outbreak simulation. Each mission gives you a real city, a budget and a planning phase before the first zombie appears. You place ground units such as garrisons, snipers, turrets, mortars, mine fields and C4, then build safe zones, walls and gates to hold the civilians.

The infection, shown in purple, spreads street by street through the city.

When you ready up, the outbreak begins. Zombies fan out through the streets and turn everyone they catch. Your plan meets reality fast, so you adjust on the fly by calling in paratroopers, air strikes, missiles, gas, helicopters and armored vehicles. Every strike has to be aimed with care, because a bomb on a crowd of civilians costs you points.

A safe zone outlined in blue, with the battle abilities lined up along the bottom.

You win by wiping out every zombie, and your score depends on how many civilians you saved. You can also steer the crowd yourself by drawing corridors and holds, so panicked people head toward safety instead of into the horde. Between missions, skill points and upgrades let you try new combinations.

The developer is clear that it is not an incremental game, and that losing is part of the fun. Most players will restart a city a few times before they find a plan that holds.

Official Trailer

Watch the official Early Access release trailer for Zombies Aren’t Real to see the outbreak spread across real cities, the military units and the air strikes in action.

Key Features

Real-world cities

Maps built from public map data, with real streets, rivers, bridges and districts.

Plan, then react

Set up your defense before the outbreak, then adapt once the zombies break through.

Ground units and air support

Snipers, turrets, mortars and garrisons, plus paratroopers, strikes and helicopters.

Protect the civilians

Safe zones, walls, gates and crowd corridors decide how many people you save.

Two-player online co-op

Defend the same city with a friend, or play the whole game solo.

Level editor and Workshop

Build maps from postal codes around the world and share them on Steam.

Is This Game for You?

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Our Take

🎮 Our Take

Zombies Aren’t Real has one of the best hooks a small strategy game can have: the map is a real place. Defending a city you know, and watching the outbreak use its real bridges and rivers, makes every mission feel different in a way hand-drawn maps cannot. The plan-then-react loop is easy to grasp, and the Workshop already fills the gaps with player-made cities. The catch is that it is an Early Access game from a small team. The developer itself says the content runs a few hours for now, the unit list is short, and the visuals are plain and functional rather than pretty.

If you like tower defense or outbreak games and enjoy tinkering with a plan until it works, buy it now: the price is low and the Workshop maps stretch it well past the built-in cities. If you want a finished game with a long campaign, wait for version 1.0 and the extra troops, vehicles and aircraft the developer has promised.

System Requirements

Zombies Aren’t Real is light on graphics but busy on the processor, since it tracks thousands of civilians and zombies at once. The minimum spec is a 4-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 750 Ti, and even Intel UHD 620 laptop graphics make the list. The recommended spec moves up to a 6-core CPU and 16 GB of RAM for the biggest cities.

Zombies Aren’t Real PC Requirements

As published by the developer on Steam

Component	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows 10/11 (64-bit)	Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
Processor	4-core CPU at 3.0 GHz (Intel Core i5-6500 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200)	6-core CPU at 3.5 GHz (Intel Core i5-10400 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600)
Memory	8 GB RAM	16 GB RAM
Graphics	DirectX 11 GPU with 2 GB VRAM (Intel UHD 620 / GeForce GTX 750 Ti / Radeon R7 260X)	GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / Radeon RX 570
DirectX	Version 11	Version 11
Storage	2 GB available space	2 GB available space

On a weaker machine, choose Low in the graphics settings, as the developer suggests. Thinking of a new gaming PC? See our Best Gaming Desktops guide.

Tips for Beginners

Use the planning phase fully

Nothing happens until you ready up. Study the map first: rivers, bridges and narrow streets are where a small force can hold a lot of ground.

Restart when a run is lost

The developer encourages it. Once the horde is clearly past your lines, restart and try a new setup instead of playing out a loss.

Aim air strikes away from crowds

Strikes and missiles stop a breakout fast, but civilians caught in the blast count against your score. Wait for a gap if you can.

Steer the civilians

Draw corridors and holds to move people into safe zones and away from the outbreak. Saved civilians are what your score is made of.

Slow the clock down

The speed buttons run from half speed up to 4x. Drop to half speed when the outbreak breaks through, and speed up once your lines hold.

Best Zombies Aren’t Real Mods to Start With

Zombies Aren’t Real launched with Steam Workshop support, and players filled it with content in the first days. There are two kinds of items. City maps add new places to defend, and mutators change the game’s rules, such as zombie numbers or how tough bridges are. Subscribe to an item on its Workshop page and Steam downloads it for you.

Top-down preview of the London custom map showing the River Thames winding through the city and the green parks of the West End

London, England

City map

By drizzlehalo

A full map of central London, with the Thames splitting the city in two. The river and its bridges make natural choke points, so it is a good map for learning where to hold the line.

View it on the Steam Workshop

Top-down preview of the Tokyo custom map with the Imperial Palace moat in the center and Tokyo Bay to the south east

Tokyo, Japan

City map

By Devin

A dense map of central Tokyo, from the Imperial Palace to the bay. Packed streets and huge crowds make it a harder test of how well you can move civilians to safety.

View it on the Steam Workshop

Gameplay view of a purple zombie infection spreading over a river and into a crowded city district

Slower Zombies IMPROVED

Mutator

By felipeaita

Despite the name, this one is a new challenge. Zombies start in many smaller hordes spread across the whole map, so you cannot just wall off a single outbreak point.

View it on the Steam Workshop

Gameplay view of several bridges crossing a river as the infection reaches the far bank

Weak Bridges

Mutator

By Rage

Makes bridges much easier to destroy, so two C4 charges sink most of them. Great for river cities, where cutting a bridge becomes a real plan instead of a last resort.

View it on the Steam Workshop

Gameplay view of a harbor city with infection spreading through the docks and defenders lining the streets

The Swarm

Mutator

By XROCK

Starts the outbreak with four times as many zombies, each with less health, and gives single-target guns a small boost. A good pick once the normal missions feel easy.

View it on the Steam Workshop

💡 These are fan-made items, not official ones. The mutator cards use our own gameplay screenshots, since those Workshop pages have no preview image. Playing co-op? Have your friend subscribe to the same maps and mutators so you are both playing by the same rules. An Early Access update can break a mutator until its author catches up, so unsubscribe if the game starts acting up.

Zombies Aren’t Real Screenshots

The infection crossing a river, defenses around a harbor and air support over Amsterdam’s canals. Click any image to open it full size.

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: Zombies arent real harbor city defense from

: Zombies arent real amsterdam canals air strike from

Zombies Aren’t Real FAQ

Can you play Zombies Aren’t Real with a friend?

Yes. It has online co-op for two players, so you and one friend defend the same city together. Each player needs their own copy on Steam. There is no split screen or local co-op listed, and the whole game also works solo.

When does Zombies Aren’t Real leave Early Access?

The developer, Jogamedev, says it plans to release version 1.0 in the first quarter of 2027. The full version is planned to add more troops, vehicles, aircraft and upgrades. Your Early Access copy becomes the full game when it lands, with no second purchase.

Can you play Zombies Aren’t Real in your own city?

Often, yes. The game builds its maps from public map data, and its level editor can pull in data for postal codes from many countries. You can play the map yourself or share it on the Steam Workshop, where players have already uploaded maps of cities around the world.

Is Zombies Aren’t Real an idle or incremental game?

No. The developer says plainly that it is not an incremental game. You plan a defense, watch it play out and adjust as the outbreak spreads. Losing is part of the design, and the developer encourages restarting a scenario once it is lost to try a new plan.

Does Zombies Aren’t Real support controllers?

Steam does not list controller support. Plan on a mouse and keyboard, since you place units, draw safe zones and aim air strikes on the map with the mouse and use number keys for abilities.

Is Zombies Aren’t Real on consoles, Epic or GOG?

No. It is a Windows game sold on Steam only. It is not on the Epic Games Store or GOG, and no console version has been announced.

What are the Zombies Aren’t Real system requirements?

Steam lists 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, a 4-core 3.0 GHz CPU such as an Intel Core i5-6500, 8 GB of RAM, a DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB of video memory such as a GeForce GTX 750 Ti, and 2 GB of free space as the minimum. The recommended spec asks for a 6-core CPU such as a Core i5-10400, 16 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or Radeon RX 570.