To the surprise of many, Palworld has surpassed both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in player count.
Palworld just keeps on breaking milestone after milestone. The game already surprised many by selling over 1 million copies only 8 hours after its release. Now, the monster-catching survival hybrid has surpassed both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in total concurrent players on Steam. This is definitely one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2024 and the game shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
The game has only been out for about 3 days and has reportedly already sold over 4 million copies on Steam, this is of course according to what was shared over on Pocket Pair’s official Twitter account. The game was jokingly dubbed “Pokémon with guns” by many, but despite the initial hesitation from longtime monster catching fans, the game has become a smash hit not just with monster-catching fans but also with fans of the survival genre. The game combines both genres together and has you collect a wide variety of different monsters called Pals, you can then use them in combat or to help you gather materials to upgrade your base and equipment.
The main reason for the game’s success is probably because of its incredibly satisfying gameplay loop which has netted the game the achievement of having the highest concurrent player counts on Steam, even surpassing both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in players. In just one day, the game has reached 1291967 total players, surpassing even Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy.
While this achievement is impressive, it does not mean that Palworld has earned the title of “highest concurrent player count of any paid game in the history of Steam” as Pocket Pal initially tweeted. That title would go to PUBG in 2018 when it was still a paid game. Nevertheless, it is still incredibly commendable. With the monster-catching tile’s popularity seemingly growing by day, who knows what record Palworld will smash next!
