8) Dying Light
Developer Techland is somewhat of an open world zombie game specialist, having already made a name for itself with the popular Dead Island franchise. Dying Light follows a similar gameplay formula but with a gritty layer of realism and much more emphasis on survival.
The dynamic aspect of the game’s day/night cycle, coupled with kickass parkour elements and cooperative online play set Dying Light apart from other zombie games. These features perhaps go some way to explaining its immense commercial success.
The last official figures released by Techland cite 5 million units sold, but that was way back in 2015. Two years on, we’d be surprised if Dying Light hadn’t moved a considerable amount more. In fact, we reached out to the developer for a comment, and though they were not willing to clarify hard figures, we were told that Dying Light has been played by an astounding 11 million unique players. Most telling, the game sees around 500,000 players per week, a figure that has only dropped by 200,000 since the initial launch month average two years ago. While that 11 million total does include second-hand copies, it’s obvious that Dying Light has enjoyed an unprecedented level of success for a brand new intellectual property.
