Palworld’s fairytale run seems to be running out of steam as the game drops from the number one spot on the list of games with the most concurrent players as sighted on SteamDB. At the time of writing this post, the game sat in the second spot with nearly half a million players. Counter-Strike 2 has returned to the number one spot.
Launched into Early Access on January 19, 2024, by Pocketpair, Palworld quickly gained the admiration of players. Within 6 days after launch, the game had sold over 7 million copies. By February 1, the game had sold over 12 million copies on Steam and had over 7 million players on Xbox. Palworld’s reign in the number one spot lasted less than two weeks.
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At the peak of its reign, Palworld attracted over 2.1 million concurrent players to become the second most concurrently played game on Steam ever—and still holds that record to date. It beat popular titles like Lost Ark, Dota2, and Baldur’s Gate 3 to get to that destination.
Also, within the first week of holding the number one spot, Palworld consistently had twice more concurrent player count compared to the second game on the log (which was mostly Counter-Strike 2). The level of success achieved by Palworld is not something that you see every day from an indie developer.
Palword’s success was smeared with controversy—which may have helped to push its popularity. Some gamers accused Pocketpair of copying Nintendo’s Pokémon’s game assets. The Pokémon Company has since said it would investigate.
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Last month, Pocketpair shared the game’s roadmap which detailed the plans the developer has for the game including upcoming features. However, their priority remains fixing bugs and making the game more fun for players. In the last two weeks, Pocketpair has released several updates to fix known issues—albeit sometimes breaking the game, especially on Xbox.
Nintendo president was asked about Palworld during the latest earnings call
Palworld was repeatedly called out on its launch weekend as some players made comparisons between the game’s monsters and those of Poketpair. The striking resemblance between both games was a burning topic throughout the week that followed.
Recent reports claimed that Japanese entertainment professionals have been told not to publicly mention Palworld to avoid getting in hot water with The Pokémon Company. The report by Tokyo Sports said a talent agency advised talents to refrain from mentioning the game to avoid being entangled in any ensuing legal issues.
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“We have told our talent not to mention Palworld on social media or in public,” the source said. “This was done out of consideration for the Pokémon side as an agency. This decision was made in consideration of future potential collaborations.”
Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa was confronted with the question during the Q&A session of the company’s latest earnings call according to a Reuters report. The president reiterated that the company would investigate all claims.
“We will take appropriate action against those that infringe our intellectual property rights,” the president responded without directly calling out Palworld or its developer.
Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe has maintained that the accusations are baseless and that Pokémon was too big to be compared to Palworld. In an interview with Automaton, Mizobe said Palworld cleared legal reviews and that no legal action has been taken against the company.
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“We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies,” Mizobe said.
Do you think Palworld concurrent player count will rise back up at some point or do you think it is going to be a steady decline for the game going forward? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
