Palworld Craze: Survival Game Tops 25 Million Players
The new survival adventure game Palworld has quickly become a global phenomenon, attracting controversy yet breaking records with over 25 million players across PC and Xbox platforms. Here are 5 key points about this emerging game craze:
1. Smashing Steam Records
After launching last month, Palworld rapidly gained over 15 million players on Steam, making it one of the most played games ever on Valve’s platform. At its peak, Palworld had the second highest concurrent player count of any Steam game behind only PUBG.
2. Success on Xbox Game Pass
Beyond Steam, Palworld has also brought in 10 million Xbox players, thanks largely to its day-one launch on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft called it the biggest Game Pass third-party launch ever. The game’s accessibility and uniqueness are fueling its virality.
3. Controversy Over Creature Designs
Even as audience numbers spike, Palworld has faced accusations of stealing character designs from Pokémon. Many players and developers have called out its in-game creatures, called Pals, for too closely resembling Pokémon. The Pokémon Company says it is investigating potential copyright violations.
4. Survival Crafting Gameplay Loop
At its core, Palworld is an open world survival game focused on exploration, base building, and collecting creatures for battle. Known as Pal Tamers, players can capture, train, breed, and battle with Pals to progress through the game’s sandbox environment.
5. Rapid Updates Planned
Palworld developer Pocketpair has called response to the early access launch “overwhelming” and plans frequent updates to improve features and content. Leveraging Xbox Game Preview feedback, the studio aims to continually optimize the experience as the player base expands across platforms.
With viral excitement fueling monster adoption milestones, Palworld mania shows no signs of fading. The controversy could even be strengthening its brand as players clamor to experience this peculiar Pokémon alternative shaping up to be 2023’s breakout hit.
