Plants vs Zombies 2 had a small beginning, with a limited window of exclusivity down under, but when the game became available in the rest of the world late last week, it led to a massive increase in downloads. So massive it turns out, that PopCap CEO Dave Roberts wasn't kidding when he said that Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time was the company's "biggest release yet." It seems that since the game became available in the rest of the world last Thursday, players have played a combined total of over 15 million hours.
That's what PopCap's parent company EA revealed during its press conference at Gamescom earlier today. To put that in more understandable terms, that's akin to over 1,700 years. Empires rise and fall in that time, and Larry King's been around for almost as long. It's also how much longer we'll have to wait for Half-Life 3 to finally appear.
Additionally, the game has been downloaded over more than 16 million times, likely encouraged by the game's extremely low (as in, non-existent) price. The number of downloads will no doubt climb even higher once PvZ2 makes its way to other platforms like home consoles, not to mention Android, possibly hitting Angry Birds numbers. The game also achieved one of the biggest opening weekends on the App Store ever for a mobile game, nearly doubling EA's previous record.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 is no doubt off to a great start, and PopCap already has plans for the future of the franchise. New content dubbed the Far Future will eventually be added to the game some time soon, no doubt playing off on the game's time travel theme.
"We are grateful and delighted with the incredible reception Plants vs. Zombies 2 has received from consumers around the globe," said Tony Leamer, franchise business director for Plants vs. Zombies. "We certainly had high hopes for the game, but to see fans playing the game so quickly and in such huge numbers is truly amazing."
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time is currently available exclusively through Apple's AppStore and iTunes on various iOS devices. It will become available for other platforms later this year.
