Newly available game Palworld, which is noticeable for its similarity with Pokemon, has sold 3 million copies in just 40 hours of its release.
Released just a day ago, a new game named Palworld, has taken the world by storm. Released as an Early Access Game, Palworld is made by a small team of developers from Japan called Pocketpair. Pocketpair is known for its games like Craftopia and others.
However, what sets Palworld apart from any other games out there is its remarkable similarity to the Pokemon franchise known for its games, shows and movies. Called by many as Pokemon with guns, Palworld is similar in many ways to Pokemon. As one can understand from this trailer below.
Palworld is primarily an open world multiplayer game in which allows players to use small animal Pals to fight against other Pals in a harsh environment. These Pals look and fight so similarly to Pokemon, that it reminds us of nothing else but the Nintendo owned franchise. However, unlike Pokemon, Palworld also allows use of guns, giving one the ability to shoot at these Pals. If required, players can even eat – yes, eat their Pals.
The other aspect of the game includes exploration of land, sea and sky, building structures to produce and mine materials. Not to forget, it allows farming, factories & automation, dungeon exploration, poaching. All of this using these possibly enslaved (captured) pet Pals.
What seems to have started as a meme, Palworld has become an overnight sensation.
Palworld Becomes Top Seller
Just within a day of its release as an Early Access Game, Palworld has become a top seller on Steam. If that is not enough, SteamDB charts reveal that it has entered the 10th highest all-time peak players in Steam’s history, with 855,706 all time peak players. For the record, Palworld is just 20,000 players away from beating Baldur’s Gate 3 Steam players record.
So big has the game become that the game developers had to set up an urgent meeting with Epic Games, which seems to be handling the game’s servers. Why, because the number of concurrent players which exceeded 700,000, are causing connectivity issues in the game. Epic Games seems to have upgraded the game servers to fix the issues.
If that is not enough, Palworld has tweeted this on X:
In the tweet, Pocketpair reveals that it has sold over 2 million copies in just 24 hours of its release. Something which is very uncommon for a game with such a small developer team and no major publisher. What’s more is that in all likelihood, it doesn’t count players playing on subscription services.
The player reviews for Palworld have been good too. As we speak, Palworld has 92% good reviews on Steam, which is quite outstanding – some of the most expensive and big budget games don’t get reviews so good. Most players commend the game for how detailed, optimized and fun it is.
More Updates To Come
Currently in Early Access, Palworld doesn’t support Player vs Player (PvP) mode. The game developers have promised its implementation in a future update. While we cannot confirm, there are talks that the game is playable in a solo mode without any internet connectivity. So it being a multiplayer only game might not be true here.
However, in all this, people might be forgetting one major issue here. It’s called Nintendo. Pokemon remains among the most well known franchise in the history of the world. Nintendo’s Pokemon games have entertained generations and generations.
However, to everyone’s surprise and disappointment, Nintendo has never released any Pokemon games on PC in the franchise’s history. The Pokemon games have always been reserved for Nintendo consoles and mobile devices. So such a treatment for PC means players have no option left but look for its alternatives.
However, concerns remain about Nintendo’s powers. Nintendo is very active in sending notices to various people and organizations whenever there’s an even single hint of anyone making a wrongful use of Nintendo’s assets – no matter what and who they are. There’s a possibility that Nintendo could send one to Palworld and its developers too.
Having said, lets hope that Palworld (which looks very fun) and its game development goes ahead smoothly. So that the game developers can continue to improve the game further and take the game out of Early Access and release it as a completed version for everyone. It’s available to purchase on Steam if anyone wants.
Maybe it will convince Nintendo to not ignore PC gamers and release Pokemon and its other games on PC. Something that even Sony is doing in recent years for the games like Horizon Zero Dawn and others. But knowing Nintendo, we don’t think they will ever release games on PC for us.
Update – Players count keep increasing
Since the posting of this article, the sales have increased only further. Palworld’s sales have increased to 3 million copies in just 40 hours.
But that isn’t enough. Palworld has posted an even bigger update on Twitter (now X):
The tweet details how Palworld has become the game with the highest amount of concurrent players in the history of gaming on Steam for any paid game.
Overall it’s 5th in the chart. Just behind four other free to play games.
