Palworld finally launched out of early access this week, with so many changes that Pocketpair head of publishing John Buckley couldn’t fit the patch notes into one blog post.
72 new pals, a new late-game region, a complete rebalance, high-tech weapons, water bases, a whole host of quality-of-life additions, and much, much more—1.0 has been a resounding success for the studio, shooting up to 94–96 percent positive reviews, with the open survival sandbox finally having a purpose now that the World Tree is accessible. But what’s most impressive is that after two and a half years, the game is back on top.
This weekend, Palworld hit an impressive 24-hour peak of over 725,000 players, making it one of Steam’s most-played games. And right now, at the time of writing, it’s comfortably second in the charts—behind Valve’s own juggernaut, Counter-Strike 2.
Top Ten Most-Played Steam Games Right Now
|
Game |
Live Concurrent Peak (12pm BST) |
|---|---|
|
Counter-Strike 2 |
939,242 |
|
Palworld |
670,340 |
|
Dota 2 |
621,606 |
|
PUBG |
470,633 |
|
TBH: Task Bar Hero |
344,790 |
|
Bongo Cat |
169,209 |
|
Apex Legends |
119,470 |
|
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth |
117,283 |
|
Delta Force |
106,572 |
|
Rust |
103,735 |
It’s amazing to see Palworld still dominating Steam all these years later. Back in 2024, it was widely regarded as a viral flash-in-the-pan, riding the coattails of its outlandish ‘Pokémon with guns’ premise that many assumed would lose its charm after the novelty of… well, Pikachu with an AK wore thin. But if the 1.0 launch proves anything, it’s that the game isn’t going anywhere. Even with lawsuits from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company forcing an overhaul to the summoning mechanics, and the latest update stripping out some of the more blatant inspirations, it has a thriving community keeping the game firmly at the top of the charts.
It certainly helps that Pocketpair isn’t raising the early access price, and is in fact holding a 30 percent off sale to encourage newcomers to try the game out.
Palworld is such a success for Pocketpair that it even has an official trading card game underway for July 30, which has already sold over 3.5 million packs. We recently got hands on with the TCG at TheGamer in a collaboration with Bushiroad, and my colleague Quinton O’Connor wrote that it’s a “genuine challenger” in the space, with “loads to enjoy.” Rather than just being a simple reskin of other card games, it stays surprisingly faithful to the open-world survival sandbox of Palworld. Across its five distinct card types and a starting roster of 50 Pals, players don’t just fight each other—they actively gather resources and build bases.
Between an already hugely successful TCG and the 1.0 launch dominating the Steam charts with positive reviews to match, it’s clear that Palworld is here to stay.
- Released
-
July 10, 2026
- ESRB
-
T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
-
Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
-
Xbox Series X|S, pc
