- BGG rating
- 8.4
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game – Additional Species Pack
- 1–4 players
- Complexity 4.0/5
- 2025
- BGG rank
- BGG #4,303
- BGG rating
- 7.1
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game
2023
Rules assistance for Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–4 players
- 120–180 min
- 13+
- Complexity 4.2/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game is a board game released in 2023 for 1–4 players, 120–180 minutes per game, and ages 13 and up. It was designed by Marc Dür and Samuel Luterbacher and its main mechanics are Set Collection, Tile Placement, and Simulation.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 8.2
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game – New Shores
- 1–4 players
- 120–180 min
- Complexity 3.9/5
- 2025
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About the game
Have you ever dreamed of building and managing your own zoo? Well now you can with Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game! Build a zoo that focuses on marquee animals like Lions, Gorillas, or Elephants to attract and thrill guests. Or develop partnerships with National Parks on conservation and re-introduce endangered species back into the wild. Strategically place food booths and gift shops to satiate guests, while generating revenue to help keep your zoo growing and thriving. The more money you generate, the more options you have at your disposal to create the zoo of your dreams! With 35 different species (most of them represented by 230 animal meeples), you have an abundance of options from which to select your favorite animals. But selecting animals is only the beginning! Just like in real life, each amazing animal will require unique care to meet their individual needs. Carefully balance group and enclosure sizes, social composition, and guest proximity, to try and achieve the right balance between animal and guest happiness. Happiness will play a particularly important role in animal reproduction, and new animal options for addition to your zoo. Play your cards right, and you may find your animals having offspring! This is important for conservation projects but also a great source of popularity. However, it must not be forgotten that a place must be available once they get older. With our “zoo in a box” – watch the zoo of your dreams come true, right in front of you! In Zoo Tycoon the board game, players compete to build the most successful zoo. In this strategic and thematic board game, each player has the freedom to develop their own zoo with 35 species, food booths, zoo shops, etc. Each animal has its own care requirements focused on 3 key areas - popularity for visitors, educational value, and nature conservation. Thanks to a novel game mechanism, the animal market with supply and demand changes continuously. In addition, small events will shape the gameplay in every round. As with zoos in real life, players must find the right balance between popularity and conservation over the course of the game. In the end, the lower value between those two measurements will count as your final score. —description from the publisher
Designers
Publishers
- ADC Blackfire Entertainment
- asmodee
- Galakta
- Treecer (Treeceratops)
Questions and answers
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game supports 1–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game is 120–180 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game for ages 13 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game has a complexity rating of 4.2 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a heavy game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game belongs to these categories: Animals, Economic, and Video Game Theme. Its main mechanics are Set Collection, Tile Placement, and Simulation. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game are: Marc Dür and Samuel Luterbacher. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.