You would have to walk a long way into the outback to find someone who doesn’t know about the phenomenon that is Dumb Ways to Die and the smartphone and tablet game that branched from it.

Now there’s a new game collection, Dumb Ways to Die 2: The Games, by McCann Melbourne and Australian developer, Millipede. It launched on iTunes on November 20 and will be available for Android shortly.

The Games 2 has already become #1 in 48 countries on iPhone and 72 countries on iPad.

McCann Melbourne managing director,  Adrian Mills, commented, “The original game reached the number 1 spot in 22 countries. To see the new game eclipsing that number, and the continued growth of an important safety campaign, could not be more exciting.”

The first Dumb Ways to Die game went to number one on the iTunes App Store in over 21 countries, clocking up over 70 million downloads and over 1.2 billion plays. It turned out to be a reasonable source of income for Metro Trains.

The Games 2 casts players as new sporty Dumb Ways to Die characters, who get to compete in athletic mini-games in an attempt to claim the coveted Dumbest of the Dumb title.

The three gameplay arenas are Freezerville, the Dumb Dome and Drown Town, and are all connected by train travel and only accessible once a train safety game is complete.

Pat Baron, McCann Melbourne executive creative director, commented, “Two years on, it’s extraordinary to think that affection for the campaign is still growing. It’s a powerful thing to put your message in the hands of young people and to do so in a way that brings such joy is a rare privilege.”

A series of online videos combining live action and animation, Facebook content and an updated website have also been released, to provoke discussion around all things Dumb.

Leah Waymark, general manager, corporate relations and business development at Metro Trains, said, “The aim of Dumb Ways to Die is to change behaviour, particularly of risk-taking youth. By maintaining the momentum of the campaign with new fresh content we believe we are keeping the conversation about train safety going and giving young people a language to use when their mates are doing something unsafe, risky or in other words ‘dumb’…

“…We hope to surprise and delight people of all ages with a really fun and entertaining game, while still conveying a serious safety message. With this campaign it became cool to be safe and dumb to take risks around trains.”

Creative credits:

Agency: McCann Melbourne

Executive creative director: Patrick Baron

Creative director: David Ponce de Leon

Senior designer: Scott Hall

Designer: Dave Budd

Art Directors: Mathew Hine & Ryan Clayton

Copywriters: Andrew North & Patrick Trethowan

Developer: Millipede
Game director: Wil Monte
Game design: Samuel Baird
Mobile Team Lead: Patrick Toohey
Art & Design Team Lead: Mark White
Sound Design: Scott Illingworth
QA Lead: Felix Lawi
Senior Producer: Sara Cousins