Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition ▶ Trailer
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition screenshot 1Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition screenshot 2
StrategyTower DefenseZombiesSingleplayerCasualClassic

2,711 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 3,609

Peak in the last 7 days: 4,183

Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition Steam store

Game description

Zombies are invading your home, and the only defense is your arsenal of plants! Armed with an alien nursery-worth of zombie-zapping plants like peashooters and cherry bombs, you'll need to think fast and plant faster to stop dozens of types of zombies dead in their tracks.

Basic info

DeveloperPopCap Games, Inc.
PublisherPopCap Games, Inc., Electronic Arts
PlatformsWindows · macOS
Steam DeckUnsupported
Release dateMay 5, 2009
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows XP/Vista/7
Processor1.2GHz+ processor
Memory1 GB
Graphics128MB of video memory, 16-bit or 32-bit color quality
Storage65+MB of free hard drive space
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 365 reviews from the past 1 year

93.4/ 100
Top 5%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (98%)

Metacritic: 87 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 20, 2026)

A tower defense classic pitting plants against zombies, this edition scores 93.4, top 5% of the games we analyzed.

👍 Strengths

202 reviews love it, and the most upvoted calls it a masterpiece worth completing fully. 45 praise the music, and the most upvoted calls it spectacular. 25 credit an art direction full of soul and character, and Visuals & Sound ranks 198th of 1249. Content Volume ranks 95th of 1351, Story & World ranks 184th of 1096, and Pricing & Fairness ranks 125th of 1399.

👎 Where it falls short

21 reviews raise price concerns, and some say a newer remaster costs more and adds issues, while others suggest waiting for a sale. 15 discuss difficulty, with some finding later puzzles and endless modes hard while a few call it easy. 11 find some achievements a tedious grind, and a few needed hundreds of attempts. Tech & Support ranks 600th of 1399, and Gameplay ranks 265th of 1396.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“masterpiece that you can 100%, real ones play this” · 202 reviews
“music by Laura Shigihara is spectacular” · 45 reviews
“nostalgic, emotionally resonant childhood memories” · 16 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 36% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Strategy +3.96 · Depth of builds, tactics, and meaningful choices
Positive “dynamic interplay between plants and zombies creates endless strategic variation” · 14 reviews
Negative “not all plants have effective uses everywhere, limiting build variety” · 3 reviews

Progression 10% · Difficulty 13% · Onboarding 9% · Freedom 2% · Controls & feel 4%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 21% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.79 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “nostalgic, emotionally resonant childhood memories” · 16 reviews

Story 2% · Characters 6%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 28% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +2.90 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “massive value with hours of content, achievements, minigames and endless survival” · 7 reviews
Negative “original content not particularly abundant, late game too easy” · 9 reviews

Variety 9% · Replayability 12%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 33% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Audio +4.34 · Music, sound effects, and voice acting
Positive “music by Laura Shigihara is spectacular” · 45 reviews

Visuals 18%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 4% of reviews mention this.

Community +3.50 · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly

Playing together 2% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 16% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.14 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Positive “priced fairly at half the cost of the remaster” · 10 reviews
Negative “charges more money for a bloated remaster with new issues” · 21 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 2% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 11% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Developer support -0.13 · Updates, patches, and how devs respond to players
Negative “devs may remove this version to force purchase of expensive buggy remaster” · 10 reviews
Positive “original version has better mod compatibility than patched remaster” · 1 review

Stability 3% · Performance 3%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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