Palworld just got the highest amount of concurrent players for a paid game on Steam.
The “Pokemon, with guns” sim also reached third place for most concurrent players ever, following behind Counter-Strike 2 with PUBG on top.
The title for most concurrent players on a paid game was previously held by PUBG before the battle royale hit became free-to-play in 2022. And although the survival crafter hasn't reached that level of success, Palworld's tremendous growth during just 4 days of live service is something we didn't have on our 2024 bingo card.
Our apologies, we were unaware that PUBG previously obtained the record before becoming a f2p game. Again, our apologies for this misunderstanding. https://t.co/r1YeN2Bed5 — Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 22, 2024
Palworld's meteoric success has made it an overnight sensation. Taking the best parts of some classic game staples, the survival game seemingly takes the cutest parts of Pokemon and mashes it together with the high-octane action of Monster Hunter and Ark. And the Pocketpair title seems to be hitting its stride, as it just broke a major Steam record.
Palworld Breaks Steam Record for Most Concurrent Players Ever
Within just a few days after its debut on Steam, Palworld hit the highest number of any paid game on the PC gaming platform.
#Palworld has the highest concurrent player count of any paid game in the history of Steam! We can't believe it! Thank you SO much to everyone. We really can not thank you enough. The team is hard at work making Palworld even better as we speak! #Pocketpair pic.twitter.com/tYHfHWLqM9 — Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 21, 2024
Yep. We can hardly believe it too.
The number totals to 1.12m players that loggged on at the same time period to play Palworld. Albeit nowhere near PUBG's 3.25m milestone, the unofficial Pokemon spin-off presently reigns supreme amongst all other paid games on Steam.
Near the top is Cyberpunk 2077 at 1.05m concurrent players. The CD Projekt Red title saw a grand surge in players after its first and latest DLC “Phantom Liberty” dropped last year. Additionally, the futuristic open-world also received a complete overhaul on the game system, making the immersion-breaking bugs that defined its notorious release a distant memory.
The third highest on the list is none other than Bandai Namco's “Elden Ring”, the 2022 GOTY-winning Souls-like game whose vast open world was co-written by Game of Thrones author G.R.R. Martin.
News of Palworld's #1 spot was dropped on the game's official Twitter page. This development comes in midst of reports that Epic Online Services and Microsoft servers having trouble housing the millions of players that want to get on Palworld's machine gun-toting hype train.
Bizarre successes aside, we're looking forward to see what else Pocketpair's indie hit has in store for us. With a wide open-world, tons of robust survival mechanics and a wholly irreverent storyline, there's no telling what this delightful Frankenstein of a survival game is capable of!
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