Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection
Skip · Strategy · 2018
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 14, under the fair line, at $4.99.
- Length
- 14.2h
- Value
- $0.35/hr
- Reviews
- 64% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, Nvidia GT GTX 650 || AMD R7 260, 10 GB of storage. Windows only.
The wildly popular Zoo Tycoon series gets set to crank up the excitement, challenge, and fun of building the ultimate zoo. Let your imagination run wild with Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection. Build, manage, and maintain your dream zoo alone or with up to four players.
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 $4.99. That was September 2026. Its cuts run 67 percent off as a rule. There have been 22 in the 3 years tracked, about 6 weeks apart.
It is pricier than 91 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 88 percent. RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3: Complete Edition ($19.99, scores 75) outscores it, and so does Planet Zoo ($13.49, scores 82). Both sit among its closest neighbours.
Of the 660 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 15 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to August 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 8 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 2,725 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 461 have a larger share. Inside the two-hour refund window, 19 percent of the 440 reviews written there were positive, against 64 percent overall, and those are 28 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 14.2 hours. Doing everything runs 76, 5.3 times as long.
The drop-off
80% 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
42 players online when we last checked, on Sep 26, 16:48 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
This is NOT the zoo tycoon that I grew up with, knew, and loved. They have changed it so much, it isn't even the same game anymore. I got this game to re-live the nostalgia and was incredibly disappointed. With the cookie-cutter designs and annoying snap placement to the drastically reduced number of animals and decor options, it seems like they intentionally destroyed this game to greedily compel others to buy...
did you love the original zoo tycoon? do you enjoy building your own zoo from the ground up, filled with a wide variety of animal species? do you like managing the zoo, making sure animals and staff and guests are all happy, while balancing finances? then play PLANET ZOO, because the makers of this Zoo Tycoon game obviously have never played the original. This game sucks. It is in no way like the original Zoo Tycoon...
Like many people picking this up, I grew up playing the original Zoo Tycoon games. If you're here hoping to relive that exact experience, it's important to know that this isn't quite that. It feels more like a modernized version with visuals closer to Zoo Tycoon 2, but it also simplifies many of the building mechanics. Compared to the original games, you're much more limited in how you design your zoo. You aren't...
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection scores 14/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/613880/zoo-tycoon-ultimate-animal-collectionReviews 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.
A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.