More plants, more zombies.
Electronic Arts and PopCap Games iconic Plants vs. Zombies franchise is making a comeback. The third mainline game in the series, Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved, has officially launched in early access on mobile devices this week. There is a catch, however: the game is currently only available to play in Ireland and the Philippines.
Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved
Early access release date: 8 April, 2026
Developer: PopCap Games
Platforms: iOS, Android
When is Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved coming out?
After numerous soft reboots and roughly nine years of development time, Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved is now marching closer to a global rollout. This week, PopCap Games announced that the game has officially launched in early access in Ireland and the Philippines. The game will then launch in “a limited number of other regions” over the coming months.
The game has gone through a few beta phases, the latest of which saw PopCap Games launch an early “Seedling Build” of the game to gather feedback. This early access version of Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved will feature a few changes based on that feedback, including longer levels overall.
The game will also now focus more on the player’s lawn, as opposed to the larger neighbourhood where the game is set. The rest of the gameplay loop remains largely the same, with the game described as such:
- Beloved lane-based tower defense gameplay.
- You can merge plants together in wild and wacky ways! We may or may not have cleared this with the appropriate agricultural authorities!
- Dr. Zomboss is trying to take Crazy Dave’s very special meteorite that he uses to merge plants! Rude. Well, you’re going to have to deal with that. We believe in you.
Plants vs. Zombies 3 Evolved will launch worldwide later in 2026, and PopCap Games intends to keep the early access version of the game running until then. The early access game will see constant updates, including “new systems and features, pruning things that aren’t working, and steadily growing the experience with more content and improvements.”
