Palworld might be a flash in the pan as games go, but it’s a flash that’s burning with the strength of a billion suns at the moment. In the two days since Palworld was released, it has taken the world by storm, soaring on Steam to more than two million players and a peak concurrency of 844,145, which pushes it into the top ten all-time most-played games.
It has been such a staggering success in the short term that it prompted an emergency response from Epic Games and the developer of Palword, Pocketpair. Reportedly, an emergency meeting was held to troubleshoot server instability at Epic Games brought on by the swarm of players flooding Palworld, eager to experience what is one of the most successful meme games ever.
Pokémon With Guns? Sure!
At first blush, you’d be forgiven for thinking Palword is a Pokémon game – and then you’ll see the guns and strange, violent elements. When Palworld was first revealed, the world had no way of believing it would ever make it to market, given the similarities the game bears to Nintendo’s legendary monster-catching franchise.
Currently, Palworld is beating out almost every game on Steam. It sits just 200,000 players behind Counter-Strike 2, which is consistently the most popular game on the PC platform. It is smashing down the likes of Dota 2, PUBG, GTA V, Apex Legends, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
What’s even more surprising is that Palworld isn’t a free-to-play game. These are the titles that normally dominate because of the lack of ‘entry requirements. Players are more than open to paying top dollar for this bizarre open-world survival game simply to experience the inanity of it.
Seriously, it’s borderline strange at times. There are opportunities for players to capture these cute creatures and then put them to work in slave labour camps and equip them with assault rifles to fight to the death against all manner of opponents.
It’s different and it doesn’t take itself seriously – that’s why it’s doing so well.
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