Pocket Pair’s Palworld is off to an insanely hot start since launching into early access on Friday, January 19th. According to Steam DB, Palworld has already surpassed Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Hogwarts Legacy in all-time peak player count, now sitting 5th on Steam’s chart with a total of 1,291,967 concurrent players (just under 4,000 players shy of DOTA 2’s number 4 spot). We don’t have access to Xbox’s player numbers (on either console or PC), but it’s probably pretty safe to assume it is doing strong numbers over there as well.
In addition to being included on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC, Pocket Pair’s “Pokémon with guns” game has sold over 4 million copies in less than 3 days, averaging out to 86,000 unit sales per hour. While server troubles seem to be rampant amongst the co-op elements of the game (no big surprise with how the sheer numbers of players have taken the world by storm), single player is filled with near endless things to do from hunting down and capturing pals to crafting new weapons and bases. I think the best way to describe this one is honestly Ark’s survival and crafting elements paired up with Pokémon’s monster collecting and battling elements with a dash of monster labor and guns. An obscure concept for sure, but one that seems to be working exceptionally well at launch.
Palworld is currently available to play on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S consoles, as well as on Game Pass for both console and PC.
UPDATE (as of Jan 22, 2024): Palworld has now surpassed 1.5 million concurrent players, moving it into the all-time 3rd highest spot on Steam. It has also sold over 5 million copies.
Image from: Pocket Pair
