All Plants Vs Zombies Games, Ranked

Tower defense games have been a popular genre since the ‘80s but one franchise that has catapulted tower defense gameplay to new heights is Plants vs. Zombies. Starting in 2009, with titles on virtually every major contemporary gaming platform, here are all of PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies games ranked.

Ranking All of the Plants vs. Zombies Games

6. Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville

After a bit of a hiatus, the Plants vs. Zombies franchise returned in 2019 with Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. Continuing the third-person shooter gameplay introduced by the Garden Warfare spinoffs, Battle for Neighborville expands the number of soldier classes players can choose from. As with the Garden Warfare games, there are a variety of game modes to engage in cooperatively or competitively as the two eponymous factions battle for supremacy.

Battle for Neighborville started out strong as a worthy successor to the Garden Warfare games but, as plans for the franchise changed behind the scenes, post-launch support for Battle for Neighborville dried up quickly. This understandably left a bad taste in the game’s player base — one that has never improved in the years following its launch. A solid game, Battle for Neighborville could’ve been the definitive third-person shooter experience for the franchise, but was left unceremoniously in the lurch.

5. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

As tabletop and digital card games became increasingly popular among wider audiences, Plants vs. Zombies branched into this genre with its take, 2016’s Plants vs. Zombies Heroes. Each player is given a deck of 40 cards and plays across five lanes of elevated and aquatic territory, with one player controlling a plant deck and the other for the zombies. Whichever faction loses all of its health first as the two players compete in turns over these five lanes loses the game overall.

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is fun enough, especially for someone familiar with its contemporaries like Hearthstone, but never quite rises above the leading games in the genre. Available on most mobile devices, Plants vs. Zombies Heroes provides plenty of quick and lightweight fun with a bit more complexity than the standard Plants vs. Zombies title. Fans of the franchise might want to check it out but most will likely want to stick with their usual digital card game mainstays.

4. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is an ambitious spinoff heightening the action gameplay while retaining the core ethos of the franchise. Shifting to a third-person perspective, the 2014 title has players select characters from four classes of soldiers in either of the two factions to work together cooperatively or competitively against rival factions. There are still tower defense gameplay elements to Garden Warfare but this set of spinoffs places players directly into the action as they defend their base and attack the enemy. 

The most impressive thing about the first Garden Warfare is that the game successfully translated the Plants vs. Zombies franchise into a whole new way to experience the premise. The series’ sense of humor is there, the gameplay makes for a more broadly engaging way to play, and the third-person action is legitimately fun. Future installments polished the Garden Warfare formula, but the original installment is a solidly enjoyable game right out the gate.

3. Plants vs. Zombies

The game that started it all, 2009’s Plants vs. Zombies is a relatively no-frills tower defense game with a uniquely nonsensical premise as players take on waves of undead with plant-based weaponry and barricades. Based on a grid system, players build up the lawn with layers of defenses and repel waves of undead that try to overwhelm the home at the other end. There are both day and night stages for players to enjoy, with nighttime stages providing their own challenges for players taking on the zombies rising from their graves.

On the surface, the original Plants vs. Zombies has a very simplistic presentation and level of gameplay but the reason that the series was so successful was in large part due to that simplicity. 15 years later, it’s still very easy to pick up and play Plants vs. Zombies and those core tower defense mechanics feature a surprising amount of depth that keeps the experience feeling fresh. A bit dated in comparison to the gaming refinements that came with its follow-ups, the original Plants vs. Zombies sets a solid foundation for the franchise.

2. Plants vs. Zombies 2

Four years after the franchise’s launch, Plants vs. Zombies released a full sequel in 2013 with Plants vs. Zombies 2, doubling down on the tower defense action. Taking place across a number of themed levels, usually defined by different historical periods around the world, players take on zombies throughout time. Beyond its premise, Plants vs. Zombies 2 adds mechanics and features that make it the ultimate tower defense title in the franchise.

In comparison to its predecessor, Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play mobile game supported by in-app purchases, but rather than feeling like a mobile cash-in, there is an enormous amount of depth to it. The number of quality-of-life improvements over the preceding game and refinements truly make it one of the standouts for the entire franchise. Still available and cooking on modern mobile devices over a decade since its launch, Plants vs. Zombies 2 is tower defense at its finest.

1. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2

With the first Garden Warfare spinoff, Plants vs. Zombies received an impressive reinvention that appealed to a broader audience and brought the action to third-person. 2016’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 stands as an all-around improvement over the first spinoff, adding the number of classes, levels, and game modes. Like its predecessor, Garden Warfare 2 is primarily a third-person shooter between plants and zombie factions to be played cooperatively or competitively.

The number of quality-of-life improvements and deepened gameplay that Garden Warfare 2 brings over the preceding game is laudable in itself. The biggest of all is that all the major game modes in Garden Warfare 2 can be played solo instead of constantly requiring online match-matching. These big changes and improvements and overarching fun factor make Garden Warfare 2 truly the greatest Plants vs. Zombies game to date.