Pocket Pair’s open-world action-adventure title Palworld has repeatedly found itself in the headlines over the past few weeks after it sent shockwaves throughout the gaming community with its early access release on January 19, 2024. The game managed to win the hearts of millions of players from throughout the globe and sold over a whopping 19 million copies across Steam and Xbox.
Shortly after its release, Palworld became the second-most played game ever on Steam in terms of peak player count, reaching a concurrent player height of over 2.1 million active players.
However, not all the headlines involving Palworld have been positive. The game has found itself amid controversies several times and has been accused of copying Pokemon designs, using AI to create Pals and more.
On top of that, several recent social media posts are putting Palworld under fire for losing about 2/3rd of its active players in only two weeks. This is the biggest player drop in the history of Steam as the title has lost approximately 1.5 million active players within a short period.
However, Palworld Community Manager ‘Bucky’ has claimed that the discourse of Palworld losing “X% of its player base” is “lazy” while also encouraging players to take breaks.
“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,” Bucky said in a Tweet. “You don’t need to feel bad about that.”
“There are so many amazing games out there to play; you don’t need to feel guilty about hopping from game to game,” he continued. “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.”
In his statement, Bucky asserted that in May 2023, he believed Palworld had the potential to reach the 50,000-player mark, but anything beyond that seemed unattainable. The unexpected level of success Palworld has experienced since its early access launch is a testament to its tremendous reception in the gaming community.
With tons of new content and crossplay between Steam and Xbox versions being on the horizon, there’s certainly plenty to look forward to in Palworld’s future. Whether the game managed to reel back in the players it has lost recently remains to be seen.
