Planet Zoo 2 launches 13 October: editions, prices, what is new and the PC requirements

Planet Zoo 2 launches on 13 October 2026, six days from now. Frontier Developments is bringing its zoo-management sequel to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on the same day, and the official details are now complete enough to answer the questions people actually ask: what is new, what each edition costs, and what your PC needs.

Everything below comes from Frontier's announcement as reported by Insider Gaming, and from the game's Steam store page. We have kept it to what is stated, and we mark the one thing that is not.

What is new#

The headline addition is that the sequel adds fully aquatic and flying species for the first time. That means aviaries for birds and both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, so a zoo is no longer just ground-level enclosures. Frontier describes it as "the most advanced zoo simulation game to date".

The announcement trailer showed tigers, sunfish, turtles, elephants, zebras, chimpanzees, alligators and toucans. The Steam page names lions, Western chimpanzees, toco toucans, secretarybirds, blacktip reef sharks and hawksbill turtles as examples.

The second big feature is Wildlife Reserves. Instead of animals living their whole lives in your zoo, you can release them into customisable reserves as part of conservation play.

You build across globe-spanning biomes, and there are three modes: Career, Franchise and Sandbox. There is also the Frontier Workshop for sharing creations.

Editions and prices#

The Deluxe Edition adds the base game plus an upgrade pack with six extra species and exclusive animal signs. The six animals are the golden eagle, golden lion tamarin, axolotl, blue and gold fusilier, hammerhead shark and longfin batfish.

Both editions include a launch Bonus Content Pack: a Toucan Eat shop and signage, three animal donation bins and a tiger photo stand-in wall.

The pounds and dollars are from Frontier's announcement; the Steam page lists the euro prices of €49.99 and €64.99.

PC requirements#

The Steam page lists these.

Minimum: Windows 10 or 11, Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, an RTX 2060, RX 5600 XT or Arc A750, and 40 GB of storage.

Recommended: Windows 11, Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 16 GB RAM, an RTX 3070, RX 6700 XT or Arc A770, and 40 GB of SSD storage.

The Steam page we read does not include a Steam Deck compatibility note, so we cannot say how it will run there.

Is it worth buying at launch?#

If you played the first Planet Zoo, the aquariums and aviaries are the obvious reason to return, since they are things the original simply could not do. The Deluxe upgrade is for people who want the six extra animals at the start; nothing on the store page suggests the Standard Edition is missing core features.

If you are coming from builders instead, Planet Coaster 2 is Frontier's other park game and shares the piece-by-piece construction approach. For the classic take, Zoo Tycoon is the original zoo-management game, and Jurassic World Evolution 2 is built around animal care and containment. If you prefer lighter management, Two Point Hospital is the easy entry, and Cities: Skylines II suits people who like deep systems.

Our games like Planet Zoo and games like Planet Zoo 2 pages list more, and the release calendar shows what else lands around 13 October. All the details are on the Planet Zoo 2 game page.

What we will watch#

Reviews and early performance reports are the next thing to check, especially how it runs on PC against the listed specs and on console. The pages we read do not give review dates, so launch day is the first real test.

Sources: Insider Gaming's report on the Planet Zoo 2 reveal and the game's Steam store page, read 7 October 2026.