Palworld, the Pokemon with guns hit, surpasses 1 million concurrent players on Steam

The incredible success story that is Palworld continues, with the game passing the 1 million concurrent player milestone on Steam, surpassing Cyberpunk 2077, and even closing in on Dota 2's peak concurrent record. With sales of over four million in the space of a weekend and a peak player count of 1,291,967 on Steam, Palworld's popularity is catching everyone off guard.

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Palworld is the most popular PC game on Steam right now... and it's not even close, image credit: Pocketpair

A survival and crafting game with creatures called 'Pals' that you collect and fight (and even equip with guns), the similarities to Nintendo's Pokemon and the game's apparent use of generative AI is causing some controversy for the Early Access hit - that is also available on Xbox Game Pass.

Either way, the "Pokemon with guns" meets Ark Survival and is showing no signs of slowing down, and in terms of paid-for titles on Steam, it's the current record holder for peak concurrent players. Making it one of the most popular PC games ever, it hasn't even been out for a week.

PUBG holds the number one spot for peak concurrent players, with 3,257,248 recorded - but it's worth noting that this figure was recorded before it became a free-to-play title, so Palworld hasn't quite hit the heights of PUBG when it launched. Still, Palworld has trumped 2023's top releases regarding players, like Baldur's Gate and Hogwarts Legacy.

It's the most popular PC release in years - and, as of writing, the most popular game on Steam - with over twice as many people playing as the second-most-played game, Counter-Strike 2. As an online survival game with servers that can support up to 32 players, the success of Palworld has also led to network-related issues that developer Pocketpair is working through.

We're expecting Palworld to break even more records this week - and with the game available as part of Xbox Game Pass on PC and console, it's remarkable that so many copies have been sold on top of Game Pass's millions of subscribers firing up the game. The Steam version of the game is considered the one to get, though, as it offers the ability to set up and join dedicated servers.