Perennial early access game Project Zomboid hit a new concurrent player record after a huge map update added reworked towns, a spooky orphanage and '400 procedural basements'

It's been a big week for Project Zomboid, the wildly successful zombie survival sim that, like a doomsday prepper holed up in a fortified basement, simply refuses to leave Steam early access. Its first major build update since 2021 coincided with a slight price increase for The Indie Stone's undead phenomenon, but this didn't stop the game from setting a new record for concurrent players on Steam.

As detailed on the Project Zomboid blog, build 42.20 brings an extensive overhaul to the game's setting of Knox County. For starters, seven of its towns have been completely reworked with new art that gives each settlement its own distinct architectural style, completely unique buildings and houses, and improved landscaping between the buildings.

In addition, the surface area of the map has been doubled, bringing the total number of tiles to 35,000. This map expansion brings with it multiple new and overhauled locations to explore, including a boy scout camp, an "entirely new" prison, and everybody's favourite spooky locale, an abandoned...