The games that died were, conversely, those with developer teams who neglected to fix core issues, supply new content, and/or come into their own with unique mechanics. The ones that survived (ha) were those with a dedicated developer/developer-team who either (A) pushed regular updates to maintain the interest of their player base, and/or (B) specialized in one particular aspect that no other title was focusing on, allowing them to differentiate themselves more greatly to keep players coming back. The vast majority of titles released within that time frame died slow deaths, usually petering out after 3 years max, most dying within the same year of release. This is of course an oversimplification, but in all seriousness, the multiplayer (zombie) survival-sandbox craze was out of control from the early to mid-2010s. Popularity wise, the 2020 Battle Royale game is basically the streamlined evolution of the 2013-2017 survival game. By 2015, the “early access, player versus player survival-sandbox” was a commodity that lined the shelves of many-a-steam account, and player counts were peaking worldwide. Since the arrival of the infamous Arma II DayZ mod in early 2013, the idea of survival games and the featuring of survival mechanics in other genres have found their way into the mainstream.