If you follow gaming news, you may have heard about a strange little indie game in development over the last few years. It was often referred to as“Pokemon with weapons”. Palworld merges crafting games like Ark and Valheim with the familiar monster battles of the world's most lucrative media franchise, Pokemon. This weekend's release was an immense success for the developers: the game sold over five million times, which catapulted the game to number 3 in concurrent player counts on Steam.
We want to emphasize: This is not the third most played game on Steam just this weekend! It is the third most played Steam game in the history of Steam with a peak of just over 1.5 million players at once. Palworld is the number 1 new release. Only PUBG and Counter Strike 2 have reached higher numbers. This is despite Palworld being exclusive to Xbox and PC (ignoring the large market share of PlayStation and Switch) and being offered for free to millions of players via Xbox Game Pass. Console and Game Pass PC players are not included in Steam sales or concurrent player numbers. So there were a lot more people playing Palworld at the same time last weekend.
What makes the game so successful? Palworld seems to be a perfect mix of gaming elements and memetic potential. Since the first trailers showed the cartoon characters and cuddly monsters in a world with semi-realistic automatic weapons and houses in Minecraft style in persistent multiplayer environments, players are eager to try it out. Palworld also contains touches of exploration elements from open-world games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Palworld is tougher and more mature than Pokemon
It probably doesn't hurt that the trailers are a little “edgy.” They show the youthful-looking player characters working their captured monsters to death in automated resource factories and competing in permadeath battles. Palworld seems to deal with the troubling implications of the long-standing Pokemon games like dog fighting and animal exploitation, which Nintendo only hints at so as not to tarnish its squeaky clean image. Maybe scratches Palworld but also just appeals to adult gamers who have been yearning for a more complex version of monster hunting and fighting since the days of the Game Boy Color. It probably doesn't hurt that the last ones either Pokemon games were bland at best, disappointing at worst.
Pocket pair
Palworld is not without problems. Despite having a deal with Microsoft to be included in Game Pass, it has the usual launch bugs and stability issues of a massive indie game with permanent online play. Particularly picky Pokemon fans will complain that some of the colorful monster designs cross the line into homage/parody. But if player numbers and early reviews are any indication, there are literally millions of fans who don't mind and who Palworld made it the first certified smash hit of 2024.
Palworld costs 26.09 euros on Steam, 10 percent cheaper at the time of writing. Alternatively, Palworld is available for free with Xbox Game Pass on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
The article originally appeared here on PC-WORLD and was translated into German.
