A game built at 16
Sexton released Unturned in 2014, while still at school in Calgary. The game is a free-to-play survival title with low-polygon graphics, set after a zombie outbreak; players scavenge, build and fight in a world that looks deliberately crude next to the studio productions it competes with on Steam.
PC Gamer's August 2016 piece put the download total at 24 million and pointed at the obvious anomaly: the game was made by one teenager. Steam's charts at the time regularly showed Unturned among the most played games on the platform, alongside titles built by companies with hundreds of staff.
What free-to-play actually meant
The download figure is large partly because the game costs nothing to install. That is the model Sexton chose, and it explains both the reach and the difficulty of converting attention into money. PC Gamer returned to him in August 2017 to describe what it is like to run one of Steam's most popular games at 20, a story about the working life rather than the launch.
By then the operation had a name, Smartly Dressed Games, his own studio. A solo developer who becomes a company is making a different set of decisions: updates, servers, moderation, modding tools and a community that expects all of it to keep coming.
Ten years on
In July 2024 the studio marked Unturned's tenth anniversary with a blog post reflecting on the decade. Ten years is an unusual lifespan for any game and an extraordinary one for a project started by a teenager who could not legally sign most contracts when he shipped it.
Sexton continues to develop the game through Smartly Dressed Games. That is the current status these sources support, and it is the fact that separates him from the many young developers whose one hit is also their last.
Why the case is studied
Steam opened distribution to independent developers on terms that used to require a publisher, and Unturned became one of the standard illustrations of what that change allowed: no advance, no marketing budget, no studio, and tens of millions of players.
The lesson most often drawn from it is about persistence rather than luck. The download total came from years of updates, not from a launch week, and the studio that exists today was built by a developer who kept shipping after the story stopped being about his age.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: the 2014 release of Unturned when Sexton was 16, the 24 million downloads reported by PC Gamer in 2016, his Calgary base, his studio Smartly Dressed Games, the 2017 follow-up interview at 20 and the tenth anniversary post in July 2024.
Not documented here: his date of birth, any revenue or net worth figure, his education, and his plans beyond continuing work on the game. PC Gamer gave his age as 19 in August 2016, which is where the birth year of about 1997 on this page comes from; treat it as an estimate rather than a record.
Watch: Nelson Sexton on camera
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roberta Battaglia | Canada | A Golden Buzzer and a finals place on America's Got Talent season 15 | Age 11 |
| Finola Hackett | Canada | Runner-up at the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee | Age 14 |
| Nelson Sexton | Canada | Creating the Steam survival game Unturned at 16 | Age 16 |
| Raymond Wang | Canada | At 17 he redesigned the air inside an aeroplane cabin, and won the fair's | Age 17 |
| Ayla Tesler-Mabé | Canada | Viral guitar covers; Fender endorsee | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Released Unturned on Steam in 2014 at the age of 16
- PC Gamer reported 24 million downloads by August 2016
- Runs the game through his own studio, Smartly Dressed Games
- The studio marked the game's tenth anniversary in July 2024
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Exact date of birth is not published; the birth year here is an estimate from his reported age
- No revenue, earnings or net worth figure is documented
- No information on his education or later projects
Questions people ask about Nelson Sexton
Who made Unturned?
Nelson Sexton, a developer from Calgary, who released it on Steam in 2014 at the age of 16.
How old is Nelson Sexton?
PC Gamer reported him as 19 in August 2016, which puts his birth year at about 1997. No date of birth is published in these sources.
How many people have downloaded Unturned?
PC Gamer reported 24 million downloads by August 2016. No later figure appears in these sources.
Is Nelson Sexton still making Unturned?
Yes. He develops it through his studio, Smartly Dressed Games, which marked the game's tenth anniversary in July 2024.
What is Nelson Sexton's net worth?
No revenue or net worth figure appears in any source used here, and none is estimated on this page.
Is Nelson Sexton on Wikipedia?
He has no article of his own; searches redirect to the Wikipedia article on the game Unturned.
Is Unturned free?
It is a free-to-play title on Steam, which is part of why its download total is so large.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Nelson’s story?
How old was Nelson Sexton when Unturned was released?
How many downloads did PC Gamer report by 2016?
What is his studio called?
Sources
- Unturned: how a survival game made by a 16-year-old racked up 24 million downloads — PC Gamer, 2016-08-18
- What it's like creating one of Steam's most popular games at just 20 years old — PC Gamer, 2017-08-02
- Reflecting on 10 Years of Unturned — Smartly Dressed Games blog, 2024-07-07
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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