After Palworld's meteoric rise, the number of players on Steam is now falling drastically. The negative record is unlikely to cause panic among developer Pocketpair so far.
In Steam's 20-year history, there has hardly been a player record comparable to that of Palworld. Although PUBG defends its throne with over 3.25 million players, the fact that an early access game like Palworld reaches 2.1 million active players at the same time within a few days was probably not on anyone's bingo card for 2024. But the hype has consequences, as the current figures show.
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Palworld is losing a lot of players on Steam
A good two weeks after Palworld's record high, the numbers fell to a weekly average of just over 600,000. (Source: SteamDB). The numbers are falling every day, although the weekend brought a small but expected increase.
Not a big surprise: The fact that Palworld eventually drops to a “normal” level after the initial high should not surprise anyone. The example of Lost Ark, a celebrated Diablo competitor at the time, initially caused a stir with over 1.3 million players. (Source: SteamDB). When such hype arises, many players want to find out what this new game is all about.
Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes just a few weeks, and the number of players drops and levels off. The special thing about Palworld is simply the dimensions in which the numbers rose and then fell again in a very short period of time.
Should Palworld be worried?
Probably not – although developer Pocketpair can certainly do without the new negative record, Palworld is still the same after Counter-Strike 2 Number 2 on Steam. The survival game has also been released on Xbox and Game Pass, although the current numbers are not known.
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Pocketpair has extensive plans for future content. If the developers deliver exciting and good innovations promptly, the players will stick with it or return. However, there will be no further highs like the release.