Helldivers 2 might be grabbing everyone’s attention right now, but Palworld was the original 2024 runaway success that nobody saw coming, and according to the developers it has now surpassed a whopping 25 million players.
According to Pocketpair’s latest figures, Palworld has sold 15 million copies on Steam, with 10 million players on Xbox.
Do note the difference there: Pocketpair hasn’t shared sales for the Xbox version of the game which is available to buy but is also on Game Pass, the likely main source of players for Xbox.
Last we heard, Palworld had sold 12 million copies on Steam and had 7 million players on Xbox. That means they’ve picked up another 3 million in sales and 3 million players on Xbox – not too shabby for a game that came out of nowhere and began posting absurd concurrent player counts.
Speaking of which, Palworld is still firmly among the most-played games on Steam. While the player count has been gradually declining since a week or two ago when it was still consistently achieving a peak count of over 500,000, Palworld hit over 345,000 thousand players in the last 24 hours according to Steam DB. That’s not counting Xbox players as well.
To Pocketpair’s credit, they also posted a refreshingly honest message that reminded their fans that it’s okay to go and play other games. The game’s community manager, who goes by the username Bucky, posted a lengthy message on X about the subject.
“Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals. Some of you may have had your fun over the last three weeks and found yourself putting the game down. That is fine.
“This emerging ‘Palworld has lost X% of its player base’ discourse is lazy, but it’s probably also a good time to step in and reassure those of you capable of reading past a headline that it is fine to take breaks from games. You don’t need to feel bad about that.
“Palworld, like many games before it, isn’t in a position to pump out massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis. New content will come, and it’s going to be awesome, but these things take a little bit of time.
“There are so many amazing games out there to play – you don’t need to feel guilty about hopping from game to game.
“If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you’re no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you’ll come back for round 2 when you’re ready. Play lots of games, try different genres, and frequently flick through indie libraries to find hidden gems.”
Both Palworld and Helldivers 2 have been fascinating games to watch as they’ve taken the gaming world by storm, both achieving levels of success that the developers never foresaw. Both games also mirror each in other in their amazing success causing server issues. Pocketpair managed to solve that by throwing cash at the problem, although sadly Helldivers 2’s issue runs a little deeper.
While I’m sure there will be some massive titles in 2024, it’s hard not to imagine a world where Palworld ends the year as one of the biggest sellers.
