The Palworld madness is far from over. The Pokémon with guns has just passed a symbolic milestone which places it at the top of the basket, alongside Zelda, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy.
And it’s a quarter of a billion for Palword… As announced on its official X account (ex-Twitter), the “Pokémon with guns” has just crossed the mark of 25 million players in total – through its Steam, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One versions. So, this does not mean that the title has sold 25 million copies (we exceeded 8 million on January 25) but that 25 million unique visitors were tempted by the adventure of the Japanese developer Pocketpair . Indeed, Palworld is certainly available for standard purchase, on Steam and Xbox, but it is mainly found on Game Pass – Microsoft's subscription offer present on both its consoles and PC! On the latter medium, we speak more of “downloads” or “installations” than of individual purchases. The game has also become the biggest launch for a third-party project (not published by Xbox) on Game Pass.
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In the big leagues
In short, despite its offbeat universe which can make you smile, Palworld is heavy. So much so that the title is still to this day the 5th most played game on Steam, ahead of Naraka Bladepoint (a free-to-play), Last Epoch or Helldivers 2, the latest sensation of 2024. Depending on the time of day , the Pokémon with guns even passes Apex Legends, the ultra-popular battle royale from Electronic Arts.
🎉Total number of players exceeds 25 million🎉
It's been a month since #Palworld was released, thank you!
・Steam: 15 million players
・Xbox: 10 million playersWe will continue to prioritize fixing bugs and preventing further cheating.
Thank you for your continued support! pic.twitter.com/LnVSqJyZsD
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) February 22, 2024
Outside of the online gaming sphere, Palworld even overshadows now essential single-player games, like Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy and Elden Ring. As BFMTV points out, these titles have sold 20, 22 and 23 million units worldwide respectively. If we estimate that each of these sales represents a player | If we put aside the second-hand market – Pocketpair does not yet have a physical version – then we can actually say that the Pokémon with guns has “surpassed” these video game leaders. A super impressive performance for a newcomer. Palworld's reputation was built on a subversive retelling of the adventures of Pikachu where it is possible to enslave a whole bunch of creatures (to run a factory, create weapons). The software is also part of a super popular genre that often creates buzz in the JV sphere: open world survival… where the player can do what they want.