Palworld reaches 1.8 million concurrent Steam players
Update: According to SteamDB, Palworld reached a record-breaking 1,864,421 concurrent players at 2 p.m. UTC on January 23, surpassing Counter-Strike 2.
Palworld, a survival game described by many as "Pokémon with guns," now has the fifth-highest concurrent player count in Steam history, having reached 1.2 million during its launch weekend.
The details:
According to SteamDB, 1,291,961 people were playing Palworld on Sunday afternoon, over 200,000 more than Cyberpunk's peak and only 4,000 behind Dota 2. This feat was pulled off despite the game's multiplayer component struggling due to the unexpected server load.
Pocketpair, the game's developer, claimed on X that this was the highest peak for a paid game, even though PUBG, currently number one, had 3,257,248 concurrent players before going free-to-play.
The studio also announced that Palworld has sold over five million copies across Xbox Series X/S and PC, which does not factor in the number of people playing via Game Pass.
Palworld has been a huge success due to its intriguing concept, solid execution, and the generally negative reception of recent Pokémon titles, which left fans wanting something similar. However, the release has not been without controversy, with many social media users pointing out the developer's history with AI tools as well as some striking similarities between the game's creatures and Pokemon.
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