The 2014 zombie survival shooter Unturned (opens in new tab) is trending now, breaking an eight-year record with an astounding 93,161 concurrent players on October 4. It currently has over 50,000 players, equaling this weekend's peak of over 60,000 at launch. (Thanks for the stats, SteamDB).

Why is this happening, you might ask? Was there some big update? Showcase of popular Twitch streamers" There is no such thing. It's just free, fun, and has been consistently updated for 8 years. It can be played competitively, cooperatively, or alone. That's all. Those are the details.

But it's remarkable nonetheless. Rubbing shoulders with popular titles such as the anime-fueled (open in new tab) "Cyberpunk 2077," the Vin Diesel-approved "ARK: Survival Evolved," and the persistently popular "Grand Theft Auto V," "Unturned" is Steam's most-played Unturned" returned to the top 15 most-played games on Steam.

Unturned was first released in 2014 and was a cute Unity engine project by 16-year-old Nelson Sexton, aka Smartly Dressed Games, with a shocking (at the time) 24 million downloads. It combined the blocky aesthetic that was popular at the time with the open-world zombie survival that was also popular at the time, resulting in a sprawling shooter and craft.

Unturned is free, but Sexton's work is supported by the purchase of silly in-game cosmetics like gold hats, katanas, and biohazard suits. The community seems to like him quite a bit, and even after several years, he still posts bugs on the Steam forums with sign-offs like "Nelson pls fix when u can." Of course there is rudeness, but obviously less than in many other game forums.

In 2016-17, PC Gamer spilled a lot of ink about Unturned: Unturned: How a survival game made by a 16-year-old racked up 24 million downloads (opens in new tab)" and a year later "What it's like creating one of Steam's most popular games at just 20 years old (opens in new tab)

"Unturned" is available for free on Steam. (opens in new tab) [13].