Summary
- Palworld, a popular open-world survival game, has seen a decline in its player count from 2.1 million to around half a million daily concurrent players.
- Despite the drop, Palworld remains one of the most popular games on Steam and continues to be in the top-selling and top-played categories.
- The game's future looks promising, with the potential for growth as it is still in early access and has yet to be released on major gaming platforms like PlayStation. Updates and new releases will keep Palworld in the spotlight.
Open world survival game Palworld is down to average around half a million concurrent players daily, as opposed to the 2.1 million concurrent players that it enjoyed at the peak of its popularity. Palworld was an overnight sensation and has cemented itself as one of the most popular Steam games in the history of Valve's digital distribution platform.
It didn't take long at all for Palworld to surpass heavy hitters like Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, and Hogwarts Legacy to become the Steam game with the second-highest concurrent player count of all time, behind only Counter-Strike. In terms of paid games, Palworld has the top spot. The early days of Palworld's early access release were a whirlwind that saw the game become a phenomenon, though the fervor has died down a bit.
Unfortunate Palworld Player Makes Huge Mistake While Building Base
An unfortunate Palworld player makes a major blunder in the middle of expanding their base and ends up setting themself back significantly.
According to Steam DB, Palworld is down about 1.5 million players from its peak of 2,101,867. Roughly 458,843 are on the game right now, with its 24-hour peak at 574,423. While this might seem alarming, Palworld fans have little reason to panic. The game is still hugely popular, and remains one of the top-played games on Steam, even with such a massive drop. According to Steam itself, Palworld is currently in fourth place in terms of best-selling games, and third place in terms of concurrent players, having been edged out by Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 in the latter category.
Palworld Steam Player Counts
While the Palworld player count drop is massive, fans need to keep in mind that the game reached near-unprecedented heights, and its current player count still makes it one of the most popular games on all of Steam. It's also worth pointing out that Palworld is not a live service game, so its viability doesn't live and die based on how many people are playing it at any given time anyway. The game has sold millions of copies and is likely to continue drawing new players as the months go by. Some may be concerned about how expensive Palworld servers are, but the game has made so much money already that it shouldn't be a pressing issue.
Palworld has significant opportunity for growth. The game is still in early access, and it has yet to be released on some major gaming platforms. While PlayStation has expressed interest in bringing Palworld to PS5, that has yet to happen. When it does, Palworld will find itself available to millions of players that currently have no way of playing it.
Future Palworld updates will ensure that the game remains in the spotlight, potentially bringing back lapsed players as well as attracting new ones. Palworld may not be quite as big as it was a couple of weeks ago, but it's still a huge game and will likely remain so for quite some time to come.
Palworld
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Number of Players
- 1-4 (Co-Op); 32 Players Server Limit
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Shooter, Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 36 Hours
- File Size Xbox Series
- 6 GB (February 2024)