Earlier this yr, it appeared like time was up for ZRX: Zombies, Run!, a well-liked health app that combined couch-to-5K plans with post-apocalyptic audio storytelling. Now, co-creator and creator Naomi Alderman has introduced that she’s purchased again the franchise from the brink.
Zombies, Run! was first based in 2012 with about 10 million customers worldwide. The app, made by Six to Begin, immerses runners and walkers into an episode-based storyline the place the undead “chase” customers. Regardless of the costly and time-intensive course of, the corporate was profitable sufficient to make different immersive health video games, together with Marvel Transfer. Six to Begin was purchased by OliveX in 2021.
In March 2025, OliveX laid off all however two Six to Begin employees members, noting that the sport can be shut down if a purchaser couldn’t be discovered. On the time, sources instructed The Verge that the Six to Begin employees clashed with OliveX and its proprietor, Animoca Manufacturers, over the video games’ anti-capitalist themes and the latter’s makes an attempt to create crypto and NFT initiatives. Later, Six to Begin alerted customers that the Zombies, Run! app, archive, and message boards would stay out there, however that future episodes had been paused, leaving the app’s future in limbo.
“I’m extremely delighted to be taking possession of the sport. This isn’t a giant company takeover, it’s me shopping for again the sport I made and love so I can take care of it,” Alderman wrote in a submit on the Zombies, Run! web site. Alderman additionally confirmed the information in a Bluesky submit.
“We’re engaged on a brand new story for Zombies, Run!, which I’m aspiring to be an incredible ‘on-ramp’ for brand spanking new gamers or individuals who wish to come again to the sport after a break,” Alderman tells The Verge. “We’ll additionally resume manufacturing on Season 11, which was paused midway by way of — a really lengthy cliffhanger to attend by way of!”
Alderman clarified that she hasn’t purchased Six to Begin. Slightly, she’s purchased the Zombies, Run! franchise, together with The Stroll — one other immersive health sport Alderman created with Six to Begin. She additionally confirmed that Marvel Transfer had already been within the technique of sunsetting, however that the app shall be supported till the final annual subscription ends in July subsequent yr.
Alderman says that her primary focus going ahead shall be preserving the app and expertise, noting that she’ll be reaching out to the neighborhood quickly with extra information. “Zombies, Run! has been a neighborhood effort because the first Kickstarter, and we’ll maintain it shambling on collectively.”
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