How Many Zombies is a Horde? A Data-Driven Look Across Gaming Universes

As an avid gamer and zombie apocalypse enthusiast, few things ignite my adrenaline more than facing down a seething zombie horde. I live for the challenge of the methodical, sweaty-palmed task of blasting through masses of zombies with strategic weapon use.

But how many zombies actually make up a "horde" – is it a loose dozen? An entire city block? In this article I wanted to leverage my obsession with the undead to break down horde sizes across games. The data reveals some staggering masses of zombies awaiting brave gamer horde-slayers.

Defining a Zombie Horde

Before diving into tasty data, let‘s level-set on what constitutes a zombie horde:

Zombie Horde: A large, aggressive pack of zombies moving as one relentless wave or swarm. Hordes react as a singular entity, directed to hunt, feed, and infect.

Hordes can emerge slowly or suddenly. A horde may shamble towards fresh human scents or amass rapidly at the ringing of alarm bells.

Now let‘s get into the numbers!

Zombie Horde Sizes – Statistical Analysis

I aggregated zombie horde size data across a sample of games and worlds. A key observation: there is HIGH variance – some universes have relatively tiny hordes, while others hit truly apocalyptic numbers:

We see on one end small consistent hordes (7 Days) and the other absolutely monstrous city-engulfing hordes (World War Z). This massive range makes each encounter unpredictably deadly!

Game Spotlights – Horde Sizes and Tactics

Let‘s analyze top zombie games and their signature hordes:

Days Gone Hordes

In savage Playstation exclusive Days Gone, hordes called "Freaker" hordes roam the post-apocalypse wilderness. Each Freaker horde ranges from 50 to 500 members. Taking down all 40 hordes and "horde killer" storyline is an epic late game challenge.

The largest horde lives at the Lumber Mill, capped at 500 Freakers strong. I recommend the RPD machine gun or Chicago Chopper and lots of Molotovs!

7 Days to Die Blood Moon Hordes

In gritty survival game 7 Days to Die, every 7 days a deadly "Blood Moon" arises, driving zombies into a focused horde attack on your base.

While randomly roaming zombie packs stick to ~10 zombies, Blood Moon hordes spawn 8 zombies at once. New zombies continuously spawn as you gun down the horde, so don‘t get cornered!

I‘ve found shotguns and SMGs work well fending off the endless Blood Moon assault. Melee is…not advised.

Resident Evil Hordes

Biohazards in Resident Evil fuse infected humans into deadly hordes on infection outbreak. Hordes often emerge from villagers, cityfolk, or test subjects en masse.

While a horde starts around 20 infected, unprecedented contagion can swell a horde into the thousands. The Raccoon City outbreak produced particularly massive, rabid hordes that required heavy weapons to clear out.

When facing these waves, retreat and bottleneck chokepoints! Funnel those frenzied infected into explosive firing lines.

Call of Duty Zombies Hordes

Undead hordes in COD Zombies modes are endless waves of clawing ghouls unleashed upon barricaded teams. Players must survive endless onslaughts across thrilling maps like Nacht Der Untoten.

Each wave starts small, but ramps up to packed, sprinting masses of undead – be ready to constantly upgrade weapons and tactics! I love ring of fire to buy some horde-shredding time.

Summing Up Horde Sizes

Like any good zombie aficianado, I‘m obsessed with hoarde metrics, tactics, and results. In this piece we explored a spectrum – from handful zombie swarms to tsunami-like mega hordes hundreds of thousands strong. We also highlighted fierce horde battles across top games!

Now you have the intel to gauge horde threat levels, plan countermeasures, and ultimately rain steel-jacketed fury on any mass of stinking zombies in your way!

What‘s your biggest horde war story? Share in the comments – I love to compare tactics and horde science!