The Walking Dead Fans Deserve a True Survival Game

For years, The Walking Dead fans around the world have been waiting for a truly ambitious video game worthy of this universe.

The Walking Dead already has everything needed to create an incredible survival experience: walkers, hostile survivors, communities, scavenging, resource management, base building, crafting, exploration and difficult choices.

Yet after more than a decade of The Walking Dead video games, one experience many fans have imagined for years still doesn't exist:

A true PC and console Walking Dead survival game.
A game inspired by the freedom and survival mechanics of titles such as State of Decay, DayZ, Project Zomboid, 7 Days to Die or Dying Light, combined with the characters, atmosphere and storytelling that make The Walking Dead unique.

A game where we don't simply experience the apocalypse.

A game where we survive our own.

THIS IS A FAN INITIATIVE

Before anything else, we want to make something clear.

This petition comes from a place of passion for The Walking Dead.

It is not a campaign against AMC, any individual developer, studio or existing Walking Dead game.

Many talented people have worked on The Walking Dead games over the years, and some adaptations, particularly Telltale's series have become an important and beloved part of the franchise.

OUR GOAL IS DIFFERENT

We want to demonstrate that there is a worldwide community interested in seeing The Walking Dead gaming universe become even more ambitious.

And we believe the survival genre represents one of its greatest opportunities.

An incredible universe with untapped potential
The Walking Dead has received numerous video game adaptations over the years.

Some have been successful and became important parts of the franchise.

Others have unfortunately struggled to meet fan expectations.

The Walking Dead: Destinies, for example, received significant criticism following its release and became another example of the difficulty of translating the enormous potential of this universe into a successful modern gaming experience.

But despite all these releases, many fans are still waiting for something different.

Something bigger.

Something deeper.

A premium Walking Dead survival experience designed from the ground up for PC and consoles.

 

A message about The Walking Dead mobile games

We also want to address a broader concern regarding all The Walking Dead mobile games past, present and future.

Mobile games have their audience and their place within The Walking Dead gaming universe.

This petition is not asking AMC or developers to stop creating them.

However, across both older and more recent releases, many fans have become increasingly concerned about a model that can place too much emphasis on monetization, expensive in-game purchases and progression systems influenced by spending.

We understand that free-to-play games need to generate revenue and that in-game purchases are a normal part of the mobile gaming industry.

But monetization should support a great game.

It should not become the game.
Players should feel rewarded for the time, commitment and loyalty they invest not pressured into constantly spending money in order to progress efficiently, remain competitive or fully enjoy the experience.

This applies to existing games, recently released games and future Walking Dead mobile projects.

Fair pricing, meaningful progression through gameplay, balanced monetization, rewarding content and genuine communication with the community can create healthier games that players actually want to support for years.

Our message to every studio working with The Walking Dead license is simple:

Listen to the players.
Respect their time.
Respect their investment.
And put the quality of the experience first.

This isn't an attack on mobile gaming or the developers behind these games.

It's feedback from fans who want every Walking Dead game mobile, PC or console to succeed.

The survival market has grown enormously

This request isn't based only on nostalgia or fan expectations.

The gaming market itself demonstrates the extraordinary interest players have developed in survival experiences.

According to SteamDB, the number of games released on Steam carrying the Survival tag increased from 171 titles in 2015 to 1,616 in 2025.

That's almost 10 times as many annual releases in a decade.

Even looking at only the last five years, Survival releases increased from 758 games in 2020 to 1,616 in 2025 an increase of more than 110%.

But perhaps the most convincing examples aren't survival games in general.

They're games built around zombies, infected worlds and post-apocalyptic survival.

 

 Zombie survival has already proven its audience

DYING LIGHT
Techland announced that the original Dying Light surpassed 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Its sequel, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, sold approximately 5 million copies during its first month.

An open-world experience built around infected enemies, exploration, scavenging and survival became a major international franchise.

 

 
 DAYZ
DayZ demonstrates something perhaps even more impressive:

longevity.

More than a decade after its original release, 2025 became another record-breaking year for the game.

Across all platforms, DayZ reached more than 650,000 daily active players.

More than a decade later, hundreds of thousands of players are still entering a hostile world to find resources, survive infected enemies and deal with the unpredictable threat of other survivors.

 

 
PROJECT ZOMBOID
Project Zomboid demonstrates another side of the survival genre.

It wasn't built around an enormous AAA budget.

Instead, it created an incredibly deep zombie survival sandbox around a simple concept:

Loot. Build. Craft. Explore. Cooperate. Survive.

More than a decade after appearing on Steam, the game continues to maintain a large and passionate community.

It demonstrates that players don't only want to watch or play through a zombie apocalypse.

They want to live inside one.
 

 
STATE OF DECAY
Perhaps the most obvious comparison is State of Decay.

Its entire concept revolves around surviving a zombie apocalypse while building and managing a community.

Players scavenge for resources.

They establish settlements.

They recruit survivors.

They manage limited supplies.

They improve their base.

Characters can permanently die.

Every expedition involves risk.

And decisions can determine whether a community survives.

These concepts feel remarkably natural when imagining a Walking Dead game.

 

 
 

The opportunity already exists
Look at what players have supported for years:

State of Decay.

DayZ.

Project Zomboid.

7 Days to Die.

Dying Light.

AND MANY MORE …

These games are very different from one another, but they share fundamental ideas:

Survival.
Scavenging.
Exploration.
Crafting.
Communities.
Base building.
Human conflict.
Consequences.

And these mechanics don't need to be artificially adapted to The Walking Dead.

They are already part of its DNA.
Survival has always been at the heart of The Walking Dead.

Finding food.
Finding shelter.
Building communities.
Protecting those communities.
Making alliances.
Fighting rival groups.
Deciding who to trust.
Losing people.
Starting again.
The foundations of a great survival game have been present in The Walking Dead since the beginning.

 

 Imagine a true Walking Dead survival experience

Imagine entering a massive open or semi-open world set inside The Walking Dead universe.

You start with almost nothing.

You need to find food, medicine, weapons and resources.

You explore abandoned houses, hospitals, cities, forests and iconic locations.

You never know exactly what is waiting for you.

You encounter other survivors.

Some can become members of your community.

Others can become enemies.

You establish a safe zone.

You build it.
You improve it.
You defend it.

You craft weapons and equipment.

You send survivors on supply runs.

You manage food, medicine, ammunition and morale.

Different communities compete for territory and resources.

You make alliances.

You create enemies.

Your decisions affect your relationships with other survivors.

Characters can die.

Communities can fall.

And losing someone should actually matter.

Walkers remain a permanent threat.

But, just like in The Walking Dead:

Sometimes humans are more dangerous than the dead.
Give us meaningful choices and consequences.

Give us a strong single-player experience.

Give us optional cooperative gameplay.

Give us survival.

Give us exploration.

Give us communities.

Give us base building.

Give us factions.

Give us a world where players can create:

Their own Walking Dead story.
 

OUR MESSAGE TO AMC 

Our request to AMC and those responsible for The Walking Dead gaming license is simple:

Think bigger.
The Walking Dead deserves a long-term gaming strategy capable of matching the incredible potential of the franchise.

That doesn't necessarily mean spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a AAA production.

Games such as Project Zomboid demonstrate that vision, strong game design and understanding your community can sometimes matter more than an enormous budget.

What matters is finding the right development team, the right resources and the right vision.

A team that understands survival games.

A team that understands why people love The Walking Dead.

And a team capable of combining those two things.

Take the time.

Find the right studio.

Give them the resources.

Listen to the community.

And create something capable of lasting for years.

We don't want AMC to simply release more Walking Dead games.

We want to support an incredible one.
 

 
We are not asking for another Walking Dead game.

We are asking for THE Walking Dead game many fans have been waiting for.
The numbers demonstrate that the market exists.

Zombie survival games have attracted millions of players.

Games released more than a decade ago continue to maintain enormous communities today.

The technology exists.

The audience exists.

The community exists.

And The Walking Dead already has the perfect universe.

Imagine what could happen if a talented development team were finally given the time, resources and creative freedom to build the ultimate Walking Dead survival experience.

A game capable of bringing together Walking Dead fans and survival-game players around the world.

A game capable of being supported and expanded for years.

A game that doesn't simply carry The Walking Dead name.

A game that truly understands what The Walking Dead is about.

The Walking Dead doesn't need to follow the survival trend.

IT WAS MADE FOR IT 

AMC, this isn't a campaign against you.

It's an invitation from your community.

Let's finally explore the full potential of The Walking Dead in gaming.

If you would play this game, sign this petition and share it with The Walking Dead community around the world.

#WeWantARealTWDGame