Planet Zoo 2 Achievement Rates Explained

This page explains how to read the Steam unlock rates for the game’s 39 achievements: what a global percentage measures, why later goals are rarer, why the numbers moved so much in the weeks after the October 13, 2026 launch, how the achievements group by what they ask for, what the rarest ones require, and the common ways to misread them. It is based on Steam’s achievement list and global rates fetched on November 1, 2026, an earlier snapshot this site recorded on October 20, and Frontier’s official posts, checked on November 1, 2026.

What does a global unlock rate measure?

Each percentage is the share of Steam players who own the game and have unlocked that achievement. Two details matter. Only Steam is counted, so players elsewhere don’t appear. And the base is everyone who owns the game on Steam, including people who bought it and have barely played, which is one reason even the first achievement stays below 100%.

A rate is also a snapshot. The figures on this page were fetched on November 1, 2026, and they change as people keep playing. The live table is on our achievements page.

None of the 39 is marked hidden in Steam’s list, so every requirement is visible from the start.

Why are later goals rarer?

Think of the list as a funnel. Let’s Get Started only asks you to adopt your first animal, and 90.1% of Steam players had it on November 1. The Future is Bright, a first baby animal born in your zoo, followed at 82%, and Earth, Wind and Water, adopting an aquatic, an avian and a terrestrial animal, at 72.4%. Every extra condition, and every hour a goal takes, removes more players.

Pairs of related achievements show the effect clearly. Student asks you to fully research one species and sat at 46.7%; Professor asks for 80 species and sat at 0.5%. Good Start… asks for Bronze in all Career Scenarios (1.0%), while Excellent Finish asks for Gold in all of them (0.2%). Some goals simply need time in a single zoo, such as They Grow Up So Fast, which wants an animal born in your zoo to reach 15 years of age (9.7%).

How did the rates change after launch?

This site recorded the same list on October 20, a week after launch. By November 1, almost every rate had risen, but not evenly:

Achievement	October 20	November 1
Let’s Get Started	89.4%	90.1%
Student	41.5%	46.7%
Unbothered. Focused. Thriving.	10.8%	18.9%
Lessons Learned	5.0%	10.1%
They Grow Up So Fast	4.5%	9.7%
Credit Where It’s Due	0.3%	2.1%
Professor	0.1%	0.5%
Did You Know?	0.1%	0.1%

The first achievements were already close to their ceiling a week after launch, while goals that need a developed zoo climbed steeply as players put in more hours. Several mid-list achievements, including Lessons Learned, They Grow Up So Fast and Job Well Done, roughly doubled in twelve days. The rarest ones barely moved in the same period; the goals that take longest are the last to catch up.

Patches can matter too. Frontier’s Update 1.0.4 on October 14 fixed a Career bug where later save slots copied save slot 1’s medal total and unlocked career levels early, and another where the next scenario didn’t always unlock after a save and quit. The notes don’t mention achievements, but both fixes concern Career progress, which Good Start… and Excellent Finish measure in medals. Update 1.0.5 on October 16 listed save stability and preventing the loss of Conservation Credits (CC) among its priorities, the currency that Conservation-aire, the 10,000 CC achievement, counts.

How do Planet Zoo 2’s 39 achievements group?

Sorted by what Steam’s descriptions ask for:

Group	Achievements	Range on November 1
First steps	Let’s Get Started, The Future is Bright, Earth, Wind and Water	72.4% to 90.1%
Research and education	Student, Lessons Learned, Follow Me!, Professor, Did You Know?	0.1% to 46.7%
Animal care and breeding	Unbothered. Focused. Thriving., They Grow Up So Fast, Mola Mola Likes You, First Steps	3.9% to 18.9%
Species mixes	Full Tank, Shared Accommodation, Metamorphose, Birds of a Feather, Jungle Beat, Cats and Dogs, Bear-Able	0.9% to 24.4%
Construction	A Few More Hoses, Just In Case, Sieve The Day, Long Distance Builder	0.2% to 31.7%
Conservation and Wildlife Reserves	Worth Its Weight in Gold, Green Thumb, Budding Conservationist, Job Well Done, Naturalist, Conservation-aire, Ultimate Conservationist, Paradise, They Do Move In Herds	4.5% to 32.7%
Driving and photos	Where Am I?, Snap!	1.0% to 1.2%
Ratings, marketing and Career	Goodwin Park, Credit Where It’s Due, Show-Pony, Good Start…, Excellent Finish	0.2% to 2.9%

The spread inside each group says more than the group itself. The research group runs from 46.7% down to the rarest achievement on the list, because Student and Professor ask for the same activity at very different scales. The conservation group sits higher overall. Several of its goals are single milestones, such as completing one Conservation Project or planting 1,000 trees in Wildlife Reserves, in a feature Frontier’s launch post highlights.

What do the rarest achievements require?

Achievement	Steam description	November 1
Did You Know?	Make every Education Topic for a species available in a zoo	0.1%
Excellent Finish	Achieve Gold in all Career Scenarios	0.2%
Long Distance Builder	Build 25km of barrier	0.2%
Professor	Fully research 80 different species	0.5%
Bear-Able	Have 3 different Bear (Ursidae) species in the same zoo	0.9%

They are rare for different reasons. Did You Know? asks for completeness on one species. Excellent Finish asks for the top medal across a whole mode. Long Distance Builder and Professor ask for sheer volume. Bear-Able asks for a specific mix of species in one zoo; our animal list shows which species Frontier has confirmed.

How can you use the rates?

Used carefully, the numbers answer a few practical questions:

• How far along is the player base? On November 1, about one in five Steam owners (19.6%) had completed a Conservation Project, and about one in ten (10.1%) had reached a 5-star Education Rating outside Sandbox.
• How big is the jump between related goals? Compare pairs such as Student and Professor, or Good Start… and Excellent Finish, rather than reading one rate alone.
• Which features have few players tried? Very low rates on goals tied to a single feature can point to parts of the game most owners haven’t explored yet.
• Is the number current? Check the date before comparing figures from different sites or weeks.

What are the common misreadings?

• Rare doesn’t always mean hard. Where Am I? asks you to drive 10 km in the Research Vehicle (1.2%), and Show-Pony asks you to start Gold Tier (Level 3) marketing for an animal (1.0%). Neither description reads like a skill test, so their low rates may say more about how few players have tried those features so far.
• Common doesn’t mean automatic. Student sat at 46.7%, so more than half of owners hadn’t fully researched a single species.
• Mode matters. Credit Where It’s Due wants the highest Accreditation in any non-Sandbox hub, and Frontier says accreditation is separate for each mode: medals from scenario zoos and Wildlife Reserves raise it in Career, while Zoo Reputation and Wildlife Reserve Biodiversity Rating raise it in Franchise. Our beginner tips cover accreditation in more detail.
• Early numbers age fast. A rate from the first week can be half of what it is two weeks later.

What hasn’t been announced?

• Whether Frontier plans new achievements or changes to existing ones.
• Whether it will change accreditation requirements; its October 14 post says the team is investigating feedback about them.
• Whether any achievement has been failing to unlock; Frontier’s patch notes so far don’t mention achievements at all.