Dead Island 2 might have seemed like an unlikely success given the gap between its predecessor, and the underwhelming reception to interim game Riptide. However, released by Dambuster Studios in 2023, Dead Island 2 has received positive reviews and sold over four million copies as of February 2025 – despite a lengthy and troubled development process. Dambuster has announced the game has reached also 20 million players.
In an even more exciting development for fans of the series, developers have also teased Dead Island 3, as well as what players might expect from it.
Dead Island 3
The Dead Island 3 post on Steam which included a visual, made an allusion to the fact that the third game likely wouldn’t be set in Los Angeles.
There wasn’t much information beyond that, other than this latest news has all but confirmed Dead Island 3 is happening. If nothing else, this is a sign that while there might not be anything concrete yet to show about this future title, fans can rest easy knowing that the team is working on something.
More to come for Dead Island 2?
Before a third game arrives, however, is there any more content to expect from Dead Island 2?
Updates and DLC were being released for the game as recently as later 2024, but along with those seemingly final additions came the release of Dead Island 2: Ultimate Edition, which effectively bundled everything together and signed the game off as being in its complete form.
While there has been speculation of a third DLC being in the works, Dambuster has yet to confirm whether that’s the case.
How Does This Compare to the First Dead Island?
Back when the first Dead Island was released in 2011, it did so to somewhat positive reviews, but not in a way that was having audiences clamouring for a sequel.
By the time two years had passed, in 2013, five million copies of the game had been sold, a good return for a new IP, which is likely where the interest in a sequel began to take root.
However, due to the different ways that audiences interact with games in 2025 compared to 2013, the hard numbers are hard to compare. While the February 2025 sales number for DI2 was lower than the first game, many people might have been playing through subscription services, which could inflate this 20 million total considerably.
