Planet Zoo 2 ships on October 13, 2026, and most of the coverage right now is a rewrite of the Steam page. The store listing is a marketing page, though, and it leaves out most of the things that actually decide how you play. I spent the last week pulling the real numbers out of the game's own payload and store data. Here are the eight that surprise people the most.
Everything below comes from the dataset behind pz2tools.wiki (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23263612), so the numbers are citable, not vibes.
1. It's 130 species, not 120
The "120 species" figure that gets repeated is the base roster. Add the Deluxe Edition species and the launch count really is 130 — 124 base + 6 Deluxe. Plan around the base list and you'll be surprised by six species landing in biomes you never budgeted for.
Full list, filterable by biome / continent / conservation status: pz2tools.wiki/animals.
2. Cohabitation is 1,221 pairs, and 739 of them are "no"
The Steam page says "build a habitat." The actual planning problem is which animals can share an enclosure. Across 130 species there are exactly 1,221 possible pairs:
- 376 likely compatible
- 106 unverified (no confirmed source — test before committing)
- 739 should not share
Six in ten pairs you'd casually try are the wrong call. Filterable chart: pz2tools.wiki/cohabitation.
3. Eight species have zero likely-compatible partners
The popular "most social" list — Grey Wolf (30), Asian Elephant (27), Bactrian Camel (23), African Savannah Elephant (22), Cape Buffalo (22) — makes it look like everything cohabits with something. It doesn't. Eight species have zero likely partners and want a solo enclosure:
Aardvark, Clown Anemonefish, Nyala, Sable Antelope, Springbok, North Sulawesi Babirusa, Schooling Bannerfish, Longfin Batfish.
Three of those are fish, which leads into the next one.
4. All 34 aquatic species are new to the series
The first game had no real aquarium content. Planet Zoo 2 ships 34 aquatic species, and every single one is new. Aquatic habitats also have their own build and filtration rules, so "water" is a sub-system, not decoration. Several of the eight zero-partner species are aquarium fish, so an aquarium zone is naturally a row of single-species tanks.
5. Twelve flying species need a fully enclosed aviary
12 species fly and require a completely enclosed aviary — not a fence, not a netted habitat. This is the most common "why won't it let me place this" question, and it is nowhere on the store page.
6. Unlock is one global instant, not midnight local
Planet Zoo 2 unlocks at a single moment worldwide: 15:00 BST on Oct 13, 2026 = 07:00 PT / 10:00 ET / 16:00 CET / 22:00 Beijing / 01:00 Oct 14 Sydney. Preload opens Oct 12, 15:00 BST. In Asia-Pacific you're playing late evening or past midnight; buying in another region doesn't unlock it earlier.
Breakdown: pz2tools.wiki/release-date.
7. Denuvo is in, and the recommended spec is not light
The Steam build carries Denuvo Anti-tamper. Specs:
- Min: i7-8700K / Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB, RTX 2060 6 GB / RX 5600 XT / Arc A750, DX12, 40 GB
- Rec: i7-10700K / Ryzen 7 5800X, RTX 3070 8 GB / RX 6700 XT / Arc A770, SSD
What drives the load is interesting: water rendering (reflections, light, fish schools) and big flying flocks hammer the GPU, while visitor crowds are CPU-bound. A large aquarium is the most GPU-hungry thing you can build. And the 40 GB needs to be free before preload, not after. Details: pz2tools.wiki/system-requirements.
8. Console parity is real, but read the fine print
Planet Zoo 2 launches simultaneously on PC (Steam + Epic), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. There is no Switch 2 version and no last-gen version — a base PS4 or older Xbox won't run it. Physical editions land Oct 20, a week later, at $49.99 base / $64.99 Deluxe.
Why this exists
The whole point of the dataset — mirrored on GitHub with a Zenodo DOI — is that game reference numbers usually live in a dozen contradictory wiki pages. This one is a single source-verified set that a chart, a species list, and a JSON export all generate from.
If you're planning a first zoo: anchor on a high-compatibility species, give the eight zero-partner species their own space, and treat aquatics and aviary birds as separate zones with their own rules. Everything else follows from the compatibility map.
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