With riveting tactics and a very dark premise (infect the whole world!), Plague Inc. has been a strategy favourite from the minute it broke out on the App Store in 2012 – and loads of big updates have made it even more compelling. Here’s why we’re still loving this viral hit:

While the game’s core idea remains (mutate a pathogen so it spreads across the globe), new scenarios have added dozens of ways to play. Greenland International, for instance, boosts that country’s air traffic, increasing the role it plays in your pandemic. Other scenarios are more radical departures. Spread misinformation in Fake News or try to spike sales of your new tabletop creation in Ultimate Board Games.

Introduced during the COVID-19 outbreak, Cure mode offers a fascinating twist. Instead of guiding a disease’s symptoms, abilities and means of transmission, you’re leading humanity’s fight to eradicate it. Set up vaccine research and government partnerships, fund contact tracing and other responses and initiate pandemic-halting quarantines.

Outbreak mode unleashes an ever-evolving lineup of “daily diseases”. On a given day, you might meet Kinetic Cell, a highly resilient type of bacteria or Wasting Lament, a neurodegenerative pathogen that’s most effective in rural countries. Can you beat every challenge?