Palworld’s incredible rise in early access continues, surpassing well-known titles like Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam’s historical charts. The game, a unique blend of monster-taming, base-building, and survival elements, achieved a remarkable peak of around 1,200,000 concurrent players, as reported by Steam Database. This places Palworld among an elite group of games with over a million concurrent players, alongside giants like Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, Lost Ark, Counter-Strike 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
The game’s unprecedented success has propelled it to the top spot for paid games in terms of concurrent player count, outshining even the impressive figures of Cyberpunk 2077. Notably, Palworld’s achievement is even more remarkable considering that the games with higher player counts are all free-to-play titles, although PUBG’s numbers were already superior before its transition to free-to-play.
Estimating the game’s total reach solely based on Steam figures would be incomplete, as Palworld is also accessible on Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, and the Epic Games Store. Developer Pocketpair revealed that the game had surpassed 1.3 million concurrent players across all platforms, albeit facing server strain and connectivity issues affecting cooperative play.
Palworld’s rapid ascent to the summit contrasts with the gradual growth experienced by similar craft-and-survive games like Valheim. Within hours, Palworld achieved a noteworthy peak of 200,000 players, a number that quadrupled the following day. Impressively, the game managed to sell two million copies within just 24 hours while maintaining positive user feedback on Steam.
For those unfamiliar with Palworld, its intriguing premise revolves around a monster-taming concept where creatures akin to off-brand Pokemon are armed with machine guns, and players can assign them to factory tasks. The game embraces its edgy nature by allowing players to capture humans and trade their body parts on the black market, eliciting both fascination and shock from players.
