Highlights

  • Palworld's player count surged due to a free update and Steam Summer Sale price reduction.
  • The game sold millions of copies in its initial launch period, but saw declining player numbers over the last few months.
  • New content and a lower price have attracted both new and returning players, boosting player count.

After a few months of declining numbers, Palworld has seen an enormous player count spike over the last few days. The reason for Palworld's resurgence seems to be related to its recent free update and its price reduction in the Steam Summer Sale.

Released into Early Access back in January, Palworld became an instant phenomenon. Palworld sold 7 million copies in just five days after release, with its unique "Pokemon with guns" gameplay resonating with the gaming community. These sales numbers were obviously unsustainable in the long run, but it remained an extremely popular title online. Developer Pocketpair has continued to release new content for the game in the months since its launch, but until now, the player count for Palworld has slowly declined until recently.

Palworld Tower Larry and Rika
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According to SteamDB, Palworld's player count has seen a massive increase over the last few days. Looking at the charts, the game has had anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 players over the last month at peak times. However, from June 27, this number has shot up to a 24-hour peak of 135,480, and has the potential to rise even further. While there's still a substantial drop in the Palworld player count from its peak of over 2.1 million, it's a good step in the right direction.

Palworld Player Count Shoots Up After New Update and Steam Sale

There seem to be two major factors explaining Palworld's sudden resurgence in player count. The first reason is Palworld's reduction in the Steam Summer Sale, which matches the game's lowest recorded price of $22.49 at 25% off. While it isn't as cheap as other games in the big annual sale, it's still a big enough discount that some gamers will feel the time is right to finally give Palworld a try. The other reason is the big new Palworld update. Released for free, it brings a massive amount of new content, including a new island called Sakurajima. On top of this, the level cap has been raised to 55, giving long-term players a reason to return to the game. A combination of both of these factors has seen gamers returning to Palworld in droves.

Because of its enormous success, it's easy to forget that Palworld is still in Early Access, so is nowhere near the finished product yet. It's safe to say that Pocketpair will be adding new content to the game for a long time, so there will always be something new for players to explore. Whether the game comes to more platforms in the future remains to be seen. As of right now, Palworld likely won't be coming to Nintendo Switch, with a PlayStation port looking a little more likely at the moment. Only time will tell if this ever comes to fruition.