It's easy to forget today what a huge phenomenon Plants vs. Zombies was when the concept invaded our smartphones over 15 years ago. It started as a tower defense game, but in 2014, it made the leap to the action genre with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
It was surprisingly fun, but a bit thin on content, something that was fixed in the sequel Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 from 2016. We don't know exactly what the reason was, but when the sequel Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville was released in 2019, it was as if EA had completely lost interest in the brand.
Several decisions were made that led to angry fans, such as pay-to-win elements, a lack of clear support, non-existent marketing, and EA's budget being rumored to be unreasonably low. The game flopped, and since then we haven't heard anything more about it.
But... we don't know exactly why, but in December, players have been eager to wage war with plants and zombies again. SteamDB reveals that the number of concurrent players has increased several times over, and instead of hovering around 1,500 concurrent players per day, the figure is now closer to 10,000 - and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is now among the 50 most played titles on Xbox.
Let's not get our hopes up that this means EA will give it another chance, though. Star Wars: Battlefront II also got a huge boost earlier this year without EA seeming particularly interested in it, and their new Saudi owners are expected to be more focused on safe bets than before.