Yet Another Zombie Defense HD Is Free to Keep on Steam Until July 30
Steam is giving away Yet Another Zombie Defense HD at no cost, letting players claim the co-op tower-defense shooter permanently before the offer expires on July 30. The promotion, confirmed by tracking site SteamDB and corroborated by multiple outlets, marks another entry in Valve’s semi-regular “Free to Keep” giveaways that let anyone add a paid title to their library without spending a cent.
Free to Keep on Steam Until July 30
SteamDB flagged the game as free to keep on Steam, noting the store page currently shows a 100% saving. According to storefront tracker gg.deals, the offer runs until July 30 at 5 PM UTC, after which the game returns to its standard price of $3.99.
Developer and publisher Awesome Games Studio confirmed the giveaway window directly on the game’s Steam community page, stating the promotion runs starting at 10am Pacific on July 23rd until July 30th. Claiming it is simple: log into Steam, open the store page while signed in, and hit “Add to Account” so it stays in your library permanently, even after the price reverts.
For readers in New Zealand and Australia, that UTC cutoff lands early on the morning of July 31 local time — roughly 5am NZST in Auckland and 3am AEST in Sydney and Melbourne — so grabbing the game the evening before is the safer bet than waiting until the last minute.
Build by Day, Defend by Night: What the Game Actually Plays Like
Yet Another Zombie Defense HD is a top-down arcade shooter with light tower-defense mechanics. Yet Another Zombie Defense HD is a top-down arcade zombie shooter with tactical/strategy elements, prepared before the night falls by building defensive barricades, buying guns and ammo, and setting up turrets to stay alive as long as possible.
It’s a top-down zombie shooter with tower defense elements featuring up to 4 players local and online co-op, where each night puts players’ skills to the test as darkness forces grow stronger with every wave. Three modes are on offer — Online co-op allows up to four players to jump in at any given time across three game modes: Defense, Endless, and Deathmatch — and the game also supports Steam Workshop support, where gamers can download custom character models and maps to switch up the experience.
The release predates the giveaway by nearly a decade. According to storefront data from SteamSpy and SteamCardExchange, the HD version launched on 25 August 2017 under developer and publisher Awesome Games Studio, itself a remaster of an earlier 2014 original. Steam’s review aggregate currently sits at “Very Positive”, a rare distinction for a decade-old budget indie title still being actively promoted.
The Giveaway Is a Launch Pad for Yet Another Zombie Survivors
Unlike Steam’s usual mystery giveaways, this one has a clear commercial motive attached. According to the developer, Yet Another Zombie Defense HD’s Free to Keep promotion on Steam celebrates the release date announcement of Yet Another Zombie Survivors, the newest title in the series.
Awesome Games Studio spelled out the tie-in on the original game’s own Steam hub, framing the freebie as a lead-up to the sequel’s launch: “To celebrate the upcoming release of Yet Another Zombie Survivors, we have prepared a special surprise: even before Survivors launches, everyone can claim Yet Another Zombie HD completely free of charge!” The studio’s own community post also revealed the sequel’s launch window, with the super-secret date reveal: August 20, 2026 given as the target for the full release of Yet Another Zombie Survivors.
The follow-up trades the original’s careful barricade-building for a faster “bullet heaven” loop. Its own Steam listing describes a squad-based shooter where characters aim and shoot on their own, letting players just drop onto the couch and bask in the endorphin rush of a bullet heaven gameplay loop, with the squad evolving based on the player’s customised decisions as they play. Giving away the original for free essentially functions as a low-cost demo, letting newcomers sample the series’ zombie-horde DNA before the sequel drops next month.
Why This Matters for Steam’s Free-to-Keep Backlog Hunters
Steam’s Free to Keep promotions are notoriously undocumented in advance. As GameRant noted, over the years there have been a wide variety of titles given away in the promotion, and the platform never announces exactly when to expect these promotions ahead of time. That unpredictability is exactly why community trackers like SteamDB, gg.deals and IsThereAnyDeal have become essential bookmarks for bargain hunters chasing these fleeting windows.
For a genre that thrives on couch co-op chaos, the timing is also convenient. With the offer stretching across a full week and requiring nothing more than a Steam account and an internet connection, it’s an easy way for local groups of friends to load up on a free four-player zombie shooter before committing any money to whatever Awesome Games Studio has planned for the series’ next chapter.
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