The developer of Palworld has commented on the debate around the declining number of people playing the game since launch, calling the discourse “lazy”.
Taking to Twitter/X, Pocketpair community manager Bucky, who has become the voice of Palworld’s development team in the West, reflected on the game’s first month since going on sale in early access form across PC and Xbox Series X and S.
“In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark,” Bucky said. “Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to reach into the millions.
“It has taken years to get to this point, and Palworld only really begins from here. Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals. Some of you may have had your fun over the last three weeks and found yourself putting the game down. That is fine.”
Palworld’s astonishing launch saw 12 million sales on Steam alone and a peak concurrent player count of 2,101,867, the second-highest of all-time on Valve’s platform. Over on Xbox, Palworld is the biggest third-party launch on Game Pass ever with over seven million players and a daily player peak of just shy of three million. While the concurrent player count on Steam has fallen steadily since the peak, it’s worth pointing out Palworld is currently the third most-played game on Steam behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. It remains hugely popular.
Still, that hasn’t stopped some from proclaiming the Palworld party is over, and it’s this sentiment that Pocketpair appears keen to counter.
“This emerging ‘Palworld has lost X% of its player base’ discourse is lazy, but it’s probably also a good time to step in and reassure those of you capable of reading past a headline that it is fine to take breaks from games,” Bucky said.
“You don’t need to feel bad about that. Palworld, like many games before it, isn’t in a position to pump out massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis. New content will come, and it’s going to be awesome, but these things take a little bit of time.
“There are so many amazing games out there to play; you don’t need to feel guilty about hopping from game to game.
“If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you’re no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you’ll come back for round two when you’re ready.
“Play lots of games, try different genres, and frequently flick through indie libraries to find hidden gems.”
Last month, Pocketpair said Palworld would get PvP, raid bosses, and new islands in future updates, but it has targeted critical issues first. Crossplay between Steam and Xbox is also in the works (presumably this will up the co-op player count on Xbox at the same time), as well as improvements to the building system.
Clearly, the success of Palworld has taken Pocketpair — and the video game industry — by surprise, so much so that the developer has issued a recruitment drive, saying it’s “overwhelmingly short of people”.
While Palworld is one of the biggest game launches ever, it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.
If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s interactive Palworld map.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
