Highlights
- Palworld, a creature-collection game, has surpassed popular titles Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in concurrent player count on Steam, quickly becoming a worldwide hit.
- The game combines monster-catching and survival elements, allowing players to catch helpful Pals and collect materials to improve their base. It has sold over 4 million copies in just three days.
- While Palworld has achieved a major milestone in terms of player count, it should be noted that the highest concurrent player count on Steam still belongs to PUBG. Nevertheless, Palworld's success is a remarkable feat for a game released just three days ago.
Just days after its early access release, Pocket Pair’s Palworld has set another momentous milestone by surpassing Elden Ring’s and Cyberpunk 2077’s concurrent player count on Steam. While the title was not one of 2024’s anticipated games for some, it has surprisingly become a worldwide hit, quickly topping the charts.
While the game is available on Xbox Game Pass, Palworld has also become an instant hit on Steam and has sold over 4 million copies over the span of three days, according to Pocket Pair on Twitter. The title, nicknamed “Pokemon with guns” by gamers, has captivated players by combining the monster-catching and survival genres so that its fans can catch a variety of helpful Pals while collecting materials to improve and strengthen their base.
Palworld Is Already One of the Most Popular Steam Games of All Time
The newly released Palworld is a massive success, quickly becoming one of the most popular Steam games of all time.
This satisfying gameplay loop is one of the reasons that Palworld now has one of the highest concurrent player counts, having passed Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077. According to Steam DB, Palworld has reached 1,291,967 total players over the weekend, surpassing Cyberpunk 2077’s 1,054,388 and Elden Ring’s 953,426. The game has also passed Baldur’s Gate 3, one of last year’s most popular titles, and Hogwarts Legacy, 2023’s best-selling game, in just one day.
While Pocket Pair has announced on Twitter that Palworld has the “highest concurrent player count of any paid game in the history of Steam,” it should be noted that the title belongs to PUBG, having reached an all-time peak of 3,257,248 players back in 2018 when it was a paid game. This is almost three times more than the amount of players currently playing Palworld.
Regardless, this milestone is quite the achievement that Pocket Pair has pulled off. Taking into consideration that Palworld was just released three days ago and is still in early access, the studio has pulled off a momentous feat in just a short amount of time. The game has provednto be so popular that Palworld had server issues on launch day due to the high volume of people trying to play the game.
However, not everyone is a fan of the game. In particular, Pokemon fans have been criticizing Palworld for the number of designs that were seemingly ripped from the Nintendo franchise. Even before the game’s release, the similarity between Pals and Pokemon was evident when looking at the designs of Lamball and Wooloo as well as Cattiva and Zorua. However, others have argued that this may be the push that Nintendo and Game Freak need to take the Pokemon franchise to the next level. After all, with the numbers that Palworld has achieved in just a few days, it is likely that Nintendo is keeping an eye on the title.
Palworld
Pocket Pair's Palworld is a creature-collection game set in an open-world. Entering early access on January 19, 2024, the project blends survival, building, farming, monster breeding, and shooter elements.
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Genre(s)
- Open-World , Shooter , Survival
