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Plague Inc.

Can you Infect the World?

Ratings

Age

9+

Category

Strategy

Languages

English

Plague Inc. is a unique mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation. Your pathogen has just infected 'Patient Zero'. Now you must bring about the end of human history by evolving a deadly, global Plague while adapting against everything humanity can do to defend itself. With over 12 different disease types to master and a hyper-realistic world to infect, every game is a new challenge in global domination.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

96/100

Plague Inc. is a chillingly brilliant strategy game that turns the concept of a pandemic into a complex, high-stakes puzzle. Unlike most games where you play the hero, here you are the pathogen. Your goal is simple but dark: evolve, spread, and eliminate humanity. The depth of the simulation is incredible, taking into account global climates, wealth levels, and international response efforts.

The game strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and deep strategy. You start with a few DNA points and must decide whether to invest in transmission (like air or water) or lethal symptoms. Watching the world map slowly turn red is both satisfying and unsettling. It’s a masterclass in 'what-if' scenarios and remains one of the most polished and thought-provoking strategy games on the App Store.

Dinsun reviewed on: Mon Feb 02 2026

Features

1

Stunningly detailed 3D world map and interface

2

Highly realistic AI with complex global reactions

3

12 different disease types with radically different strategies

4

Save/Load functionality and global leaderboards

5

Expansion packs including Zombies and the Neurax Worm

Upcoming Events

Outbreak Mode
Outbreak Mode
Daily diseases come to Plague Inc!
Thu Feb 05 2026 - Sun Mar 08 2026

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

Yes, it is so realistic that the CDC once invited the developer to speak about the infection models used in the game!

Ratings & Reviews

Invalid Date

Play to Win
Mon Jul 31 2017 ExSheex

So, I originally played this game on PC and moved to mobile when I learned I could play it anywhere. It's a great app, and really cheap for what you get. Now, there are a few pay items, such as the scenario packs and now the scenario creator, but the rest of the content is locked behind gameplay, which is great! You also have the option to pay for the content, instead of progressively unlocking it by beating each plague type, but that is not necessary. You will need to play to win though by devising good strategies for each plague type, as they really are all different. You can unlock the standard plague types by simply beating them in in order, but after that there are the special types to unlock and of course the cheats, which can make the game extra fun just to mess around with. Unlocking these is a challenge, especially the last ones where you need to beat all standard plague types on Mega Brutal, but it's definitely doable. I've done so on both my iPad and iPhone, but you will likely need to try multiple times for each type in order to devise a great strategy to win against the really tough conditions of Mega Brutal. The hardest for me in all difficulties was the Nano-Virus, as the cure begins right at the start of the game, but even that can be won with persistence. It's not a chore, it's fun to learn how best to evolve and disrupt humanity in order to infect and kill the world. So enjoy the game; it's a great price and if you find it fun enough you can expand it with the scenarios pack and even the scenario creator to keep the fun going without breaking the bank.

Really fun game! Love it, except for one small detail
Tue May 13 2025 ARegularLizard

I feel like a lot of the pathogens in this game are relatively scientifically accurate (as much as they can be for a mobile game) except for the prion option. Prion diseases can’t really spread through typical means, since they are misfolded proteins. I understand why they would be contagious through these typical means in the game for gameplay reasons, but I think it would be really interesting if they were more contagious through food consumption in the game (like they are in real life.) perhaps there could be an option to evolve to infect different types of livestock, and as the disease gets noticed, countries start banning the consumption of certain types of meat. It could be cool if there were more options for neural atrophy, since real life prion diseases have pretty nasty effects on the brain. Overall, I think there should be slightly less options for spreading the disease through air and water, but more options for spreading through animals, food consumption, and higher resistance of the disease. Aside from this, the game is really fun, and has to be one of my favorite mobile games.

This game is FIRE (literally and in game)
Fri Apr 19 2024 Well it’s a review

This game is crazy good, hard but good, ranging from fun up to saving the world from what you caused. It’s great and I appreciate that about Plague Inc. the realistic model how fun the game is. normal mode is awesome. Just making a plague. You have so many different abilities to upgrade your… I mean… whatever it is. YOU CAN UPGRADE IT. and I love how they use Roman numerals instead of 1 2 3 4. I could go on and on. But just to save time for reading this review. I recommend the game. if you’re crazy enough as me just keep reading, I said I could go on and on. so why not do it? And there were so many different types of viruses you can get bacteria, virus, and all the way up to alien virus. (the funny thing about it is there is an upgrade that allows you to turn people into snails with the alien virus) and there is a cure mode. But get the cure mode you have to pay. Why do I have to pay a game They already payed for!? It’s actually kind of annoying. It’s not even all that fun. Minus one star. It’s still a great game, though ranging from beginner all the way up to brutal difficulty. As normal already feels impossible. Look at brutal over here. You don’t even do anything and They already have the cure. It’s so annoying. all I know is that you should play the game. mike drop. this guy is out.

Hard game mostly behind a paywall
Thu Sep 04 2025 Cutiepie018465919471940

I was lead into this game because I wanted to play the zombie and vampire scenarios, but quickly learned they are added dlc even though they are in the game images without mentioning that. I play a lot of world conquering games like CIV fand EU4, so I u Der stand the basics of this type of game. However I found this game to be quite difficult from the very beginning and all the maps are locked behind either beating the previous level on a certain difficulty or a paywall. I know people will say ‘get good’, but the game also doesn’t do a good job of giving you hints on how to improve and all the bonus items are again locked behind a paywall so you can’t even grind for them. This game is a big disappointment due to the learning curve. And if I don’t want to pay for the zombies or vampires, you have to beat all the levels on the hard mode. I cannot recommend this to anyone but the most die hard fan of this game. I hope the develop has improved on their other titles. Update: I beat all the main game plagues on Brutal difficulty and the game only allowed me to play the shadow/vampire plague once and then locked me out to buy even though it said it would open up if I beat the main plagues on that difficulty level. What is the deal. I know people like this game but it seems like it it always blocking me from trying the next thing.

Stupid Game
Fri Oct 26 2018 DJBecker420

I figured the point of a game like this would be to make the best disease possible but apparently that doesn’t work. The balance the game requires your disease to have to win is ridiculous because you have to kill literally every person in the world to win. Like if 50 people out of 7,000,000,000+ survive you lose. And apparently my diseases are too potent because I keep running into this issue. I’ve lost every game I’ve played on the normal setting because there were a few hundred people who survived because they weren’t infected. The reason they weren’t infected is because my disease killed everyone in that last country too quickly for them to get infected, even though my virus is airborne, waterborne, and spread through necrotic tissue of the dead people in the same country. The game just cuts you off and says you lose even though there are literally 5 different ways the disease should still be spreading even without alive and infected people. But if you make your disease less potent and just wait for it to infect everyone you lose because once a certain number of people are infected the world comes together to try and make a cure. And the only way to prevent that cure? By upgrading your disease and killing them before they can. So you lose for killing people too quickly and you lose for not killing people quick enough. And the happy medium to win between those two is almost impossible to actually hit. Stupid game and a waste of time. Don’t waste the money or the hours playing like I unfortunately did.

Relieving
Tue Dec 15 2020 An21rew

Soooooooo yeah, I’m back. I was here about a year ago and gave this a 3 star and said that to do stuff in the game you have to pay in addition to the price of the game. I was wrong. You have to beat everything on normal and then the specials on brutal. My one concern is the shadow plague. Without the 3rd tier blood thing (the one that raises combat ability) you cannot fight ANYTHING. Even the labs will half kill you. Just saying that this might need a tiny redesign. Second, I cannot for the life of me (without cheats) complete Black Death (or whatever it’s called) scenario. I’ve tried with cheats to get the strat but seriously, without cheats it’s like trying to do shadow plague on mega brutal on first try. Either I don’t get something or I’m bad or it’s impossible. It’s most likely the first as I’ve completed everything on mega brutal except it. I also have a quick suggestion: multiplayer. You’ve already created both things for it: the cure mode and the plague mode. Have a multiplayer where one person tries to infect the world while the other person tries to stop them. Amazing game, keep it up

Great game overall
Fri Jul 17 2020 BaseballKiiiiid

I love the game, it’s super fun to play. However, I’ve noticed that there’s a bug in the smallpox scenario, or at least I think it’s a bug. No matter what you do or where you start, after the plague infects a few hundred or a few thousand people in your starting country, it immediately stops infecting people. Sometimes it will spread to other countries, but in those countries it also very quickly stops infecting people, making the scenario end very quickly because the plague kills everyone and doesn’t infect anyone more. In a recent smallpox scenario, I started in Egypt and it infected like 10,000 people, more than usual. Then it stopped infecting people and eventually no one was infected in Egypt, the 10,000 were all dead. It spread to a bunch of other countries in Africa and infected a few people in those countries, but then stopped infecting. It even spread by plane to the USA and like 20 people got infected, and it immediately went down to 0 because everyone got killed and no one else got infected. Besides this one issue I’ve confronted, the game is super fun to play.

I’m disappointed
Fri Nov 29 2019 TOO HARD!!!!!!

This game is very fun when it works right. I started off on the easy difficulty and managed to win after one or two tries and then moved on to normal mode in which I have spent the past 3 and a half hours trying to beat and have not been successful. The jump in difficulty from easy to normal can only be described as braindead. There was one round where I managed to get the entire world infected without my disease being noticed (I did this by devolving every symptom when it came). As soon as I started adding symptoms, within 5 minutes the country was halfway to a cure and I couldn’t produce enough dna to make symptoms that would kill off the population, because once you have a bunch of people infected the game decides that you don’t need to earn dna points anymore for whatever reason. I went online looking up ways to beat it just for my own satisfaction of having the level beat but not one of them worked either. I remember playing this game when it came out and having a lot of fun but now there’s just a bad taste in my mouth and I can’t stand the thought of turning it on again because I know it will only frustrate me to no end as I hopelessly try to beat the normal difficulty knowing that I will not succeed.

Some Youtube Videos found!

News found!

A wildly popular pandemic video game gets a surprise sequelA wildly popular pandemic video game gets a surprise sequel

“I have had quite a lot of people worry that our games tend to predict the future,” game designer James Vaughan told me over email this...

Game File | Stephen Totilo Sun Dec 29 2024

What happens to a game about pandemics when there’s an actual pandemicWhat happens to a game about pandemics when there’s an actual pandemic

“Would the pandemic have gone differently if Boris Johnson had played Plague Inc before COVID? Maybe it would have done,” says Plague Inc...

Mobilegamer.biz Thu May 29 2025

The creators of pandemic sim Plague Inc are back with 4X city builder After Inc: RevivalThe creators of pandemic sim Plague Inc are back with 4X city builder After Inc: Revival

In Ndemic Creations' mobile strategy sim Plague Inc, you nurture a disease and attempt to spread it across the world. O…

Rock Paper Shotgun Sun Dec 29 2024

Plague Inc gets surprise sequel where you rebuild humanity following devastating zombie apocalypsePlague Inc gets surprise sequel where you rebuild humanity following devastating zombie apocalypse

Plague Inc - the game which tasks its players with infecting the world, and bringing about the end of humanity - has received a surprise and...

Eurogamer Sun Dec 29 2024

To one of the most popular mobile games in the world, Plague Inc. an unexpected "optimistic" sequel came outTo one of the most popular mobile games in the world, Plague Inc. an unexpected "optimistic" sequel came out

The British studio Ndemic Creations, known for the strategy about epidemics Plague Inc. In 2012, which received more than 190 million...

dev.ua Sun Dec 29 2024

Creator of Zombie Sequel to Plague Inc. on Game World & $2 PriceCreator of Zombie Sequel to Plague Inc. on Game World & $2 Price

Back in 2012, Ndemic Creations released Plague Inc., a game in which players were in control of a disease and were supposed to infect the...

80 Level Sun Dec 29 2024

Plague Inc's city-building sequel is "more happy and optimistic" than its predecessor, even if its creator thinks its $2 price tag is a "huge gamble"Plague Inc's city-building sequel is "more happy and optimistic" than its predecessor, even if its creator thinks its $2 price tag is a "huge gamble"

A sequel to the incredibly popular mobile game Plague Inc just came out and it's all about rebuilding the world following an apocalypse...

GamesRadar+ Sun Dec 29 2024

What happened after Plague Inc.? The dev's next game looks to find outWhat happened after Plague Inc.? The dev's next game looks to find out

Ndemic Creations, the developer behind Plague Inc., has a new game called After Inc. It's a “mini 4X” strategy game about rebuilding after a...

Android Authority Sun Dec 29 2024

Newly Released Plague Inc. Sequel Asks Players To Rebuild The WorldNewly Released Plague Inc. Sequel Asks Players To Rebuild The World

After destroying humanity in Plague Inc. players can now rebuild it in Ndemic Creations' latest game After Inc.

Comic Book Resources Wed Jan 29 2025

CEPI welcomes launch of new Plague Inc. game to show the world how to stop the next pandemicCEPI welcomes launch of new Plague Inc. game to show the world how to stop the next pandemic

Plague Inc: The Cure is a major expansion for Plague Inc. which reverses the original game and lets players save the world from a deadly pandemic.

CEPI Tue Dec 29 2020

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