Let's Build a Zoo
Worth it · Strategy · 2021
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $6.99.
- Length
- 38.8h
- Value
- $0.18/hr
- Reviews
- 89% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550/equivalent or higher, 737 MB of storage. Windows only.
It's time to Build a Zoo! Construct and decorate enclosures, buy and breed animals, hire zookeepers and vets... then try your hand at DNA splicing, and stitch together over 300,000 different types of animal. This can only go smoothly...
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $5.99. That was October 2025. It has been discounted 40 times in the 5 years tracked here, typically at 60 percent off, with about 6 weeks between sales.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 1 percent on value. It is pricier than 89 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 94 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Factorio ($35.00, scores 97) beats it on value, while it beats Settlement Survival ($19.99, scores 71).
Critics scored it 78. Players sit 11 points higher at 89 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Of the 707 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 9 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written November 2021 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 70 percent of the 299 reviews written there were positive, against 89 percent overall, and those are 8 percent of everything written about it.
The drop-off
84% start to <1% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
90 players online when we last checked, on Oct 1, 13:47 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
x-- 7/10 --x Excellent "Zoo Tycoon" clone. There's tons of customisation involved and you can play at your own pace.
Such a cute game, I loved it. It's cozy and perfect to unwind in the evening when you don't want to do much. Also, the DLCs are totally worth it, even if it's a bummer you can't use shops/decors from them in the main game.
Did not get more than the 2 hours in, Devs are either super political, or very bad at satire. Uninstalled when I was given a non optional objective to meet a diversity quote by hiring three different looking types of employees. Uninstalled, refund requested, "Lets build a dungeon" removed from wishlist, went back to planet zoo.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
Let's Build a Zoo scores 80/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/1547890/let-s-build-a-zooReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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