Plants vs. Zombies 3
Logo with former title
Developer	PopCap Games
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Composer	Barry Dowsett[1]
Series	Plants vs. Zombies
Platforms	Android, iOS
Release	Welcome to Zomburbia January 17, 2024 Evolved October 7, 2025
Genre	Tower defense

Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved^[a] is an upcoming tower defense mobile game in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first game in the franchise to incorporate the main characters of the Plants vs. Zombies comic book series, written by Paul Tobin and published by Dark Horse Comics since 2013. The game follows you and your neighbor Crazy Dave, when a meteorite suddenly crashes into the lawn.

Plants vs. Zombies 3 is a tower defense game where players defend the left side of the screen from hordes of zombies approaching from the right. The player uses various plants with different abilities to combat these zombies. Some plants attack zombies directly while others are designed to slow them down, allowing the player to attack them. The game is set on a five-row grid, where the player places plants to prevent the zombies from reaching the end of each row. Plants are purchased using "sun," a currency obtained by clicking sun icons that randomly drop from the sky or are produced by certain plants, like Sunflowers. If a zombie breaches all lines of defense first, Mo the Smart Lawn Mower will activate on that respective zombie's lawn and defeat all zombies within it. However, if another zombie breaches again, the game is over.^{[citation needed]}

The game revolves around combining certain plants to form new plants. As you progress, you complete tasks which lead the player to unlock more plants and possible plant merges.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike its predecessor, Plants vs Zombies 2 (2013), this installment takes place in Crazy Dave's hometown, Suburbia. Losing a level results in losing a life, represented with brains; losing all five brains renders the player unable to play again until their brain "health" bar replenishes. When a level is complete, gravestones will emerge from where zombies were defeated and break to reveal coins. Coins can be used to purchase power-ups. Completing a level awards a Taco Ticket, which can be used to activate tasks to progress the story and restore parts of the lawn. Activating enough tasks will finish the day and award a lunch box containing goodies.^{[citation needed]}

Plants vs. Zombies 3 began development as early as 2016, with various concepts created by digital artist Jason Brown.^[2] The game was expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2017 according to the China Licensing Expo 2017.^{[citation needed]} On July 16, 2019, PopCap announced the existence of the game and that a pre-alpha was coming soon for players to give feedback.^[3] The pre-alpha was closed on February 10, 2020, and was soft launched to select countries on February 25, 2020.^{[citation needed]}

With the soft-launch on 2020, the game's creative choices received major criticism. Examples included its art style switching from 2D to 3D, the game set to portrait orientation, the non-linear progression system, the overhaul of the game's sun system, and the game's unfair difficulty.^{[citation needed]} In response to criticism towards the game, PopCap decided to redo the game from scratch, which was later soft launched on September 7, 2021.^[4]

The game would release soft launch updates from then to October 12, 2022. The game went silent for more than a year, with some speculating that the game was cancelled. However, the game received another soft launch on January 17, 2024, with the name Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia.^{[citation needed]}

On October 16, 2024, EA took Plants vs. Zombies 3 offline for a "major overhaul".^[5] On January 14, 2025, the official Twitter account for the franchise would post the "EA Player Pulse" poll, asking for feedback regarding the game.^{[citation needed]} On February 7, EA would seek fan input regarding a second art style change, with three different styles to select from (including the current art style). Fans could choose which image they prefer by using a hashtag on social media, along with a brief sentence explaining why they preferred said art style.^[6] The game received another soft launch on October 7, 2025, with the name Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved.^[7] Fans noticed that the new main mechanic of merging plants is reminiscent of a popular fangame for the original Plants vs. Zombies.^[8][9]

• Official website