Planet Zoo

Planet Zoo tasks players with building a zoo, with 76 animal species in the base game and 134 new species available through 20 separate downloadable content packs, the Deluxe Edition and Anniversary updates. Animals, controlled by artificial intelligence, behave similarly to their real-life counterparts. For instance, wolves adopt a pack mentality and animals of the African plains (such as giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, and buffalo) can live together in a single mixed-species habitat. Each species has its own requirements and needs that players must satisfy through creation of a suitable exhibit environment and adequate behavioral enrichment.

Predators can attack and kill other animals, but unlike in Zoo Tycoon, cannot attack guests. Each animal has their own genome within the game's breeding system, which reflect its life expectancy, size, health, and fertility and can be passed down through offspring. As such, elements such as inbreeding may have negative consequences on progeny.

The game was announced on 24 April 2019 and released on 5 November 2019. Its release was highly anticipated by many fans of the original Zoo Tycoon series who were disappointed by the significant changes to the 2013 reboot. Planet Zoo was made using Frontier's Cobra game engine.

Frontier has continued to support the game through free updates to the base game. In addition to patching and bug fixes, these free updates have included new content such as scenery items including foliage and building pieces, new menus for food quality and park rides, and new in-game mechanics like hereditable colour variation, vending machines, educator animal talks, first person camera mode and animal underwater diving. Frontier commemorates the game's yearly anniversary through "Anniversary Updates", commonly adding more animals to the game. So far, the anniversary animals added have been the black-and-white ruffed lemur, red deer, collared peccary, African leopard, and Malabar rose.

Planet Zoo received "generally positive reviews" according to review aggregator website Metacritic. It was praised for its attention to detail, graphics, heavily-researched animal behavior, robust build tools, in-depth management and economy system, and educational value regarding wildlife conservation. Drawing from Planet Coaster, the game was construed as offering players unparalleled flexibility and scope to design a zoological park unbound by creativity relative to previous zoo-based simulation games. IGN described the game as "widely satisfying" and "wowed with a huge amount of customization." Destructoid praised it as successfully capturing the spirit of Zoo Tycoon and many reviews have characterized it as the finest zoo management game of its time, with Kotaku calling it "one of gaming's great sandboxes".

However, these features also drew criticism for a steep learning curve and requiring a heavy attention to management; many reviewers considered this potentially off-putting to casual players who may be primarily interested in the animals over broader elements of park management. Although highly complex and detailed structures may be designed from scratch, the building mechanics and pathing system in particular have been described as being very difficult for new players to execute properly, especially for those who had not previously played Planet Coaster. Various guest, staff, and animal welfare mechanics have also been described as requiring an at times overwhelming degree of micromanagement. GameSpot described the game as a "spreadsheet safari" which "sometimes stumbles under the weight of its own systems", while GameInformer concluded that "an unreasonable level of patience [...] creates a barrier around its best qualities."