Palworld is here and immediately triggers hype: The open-world survival game immediately places itself among the world’s most-played titles
There have long been indications that Palworld will become a big topic: The game, also known as “Pókemon with guns”, was always high up on Steam wish lists and there was also a huge rush for the title on Twitch.
Now Palworld is here – at least in Early Access on Steam for just under 30 euros. And there it exceeds even the wildest expectations: Immediately after launch, Palworld according to SteamDB is in the top 5 most-played Steam games by simultaneously active players.
Or to put it another way: Palworld is rapidly overtaking Apex Legends, Baldur’s Gate 3, GTA Online and Call of Duty (all absolute Steam all-time favorites)! Why is that?
“It’s just fun “
This is a maneuver that most new releases can only dream of. Making it into the top 50 of the Steam charts at release is already a strong indication of great sales success
Due to the short time available, there are only a few user reviews of Palworld so far, so it is not possible to make a truly representative statement.
But: Most of the early reviews paint a positive picture, with around 85 percent of users giving it the blue thumbs up. Here are two examples with numerous upvotes:
- “It’s just fun and definitely addictive,” writes user Vanity. “I thought it was a meme game at first, but then it exceeded all my expectations. Therefore an instant buy for me.”
- User Maljas agrees: “Palworld is much better than I expected. I was expecting a typical Indie-Early-Access, but it’s a completely different caliber. The base is absolutely solid and an exciting mix of Ark and Pókemon.”
Survival with companions
Palworld is essentially a typical survival game with an open world: by mining raw materials and collecting resources, we can create items using the crafting system and build a base. As technology becomes more advanced, farming, electricity and eventually automated processes come into play.
The special feature are the eponymous Pals. These are creatures in the style of Pókemon that we can hunt, breed, ride, employ as workers or even send into battle armed as warriors.
Rare Pals in particular have powerful properties – fire-breathing dragon creatures, for example, can fuel our smelting furnaces. In multiplayer, you can also trade or fight with Pals later on – indirect PvP, so to speak
In the course of the Early Access phase, the developers say they primarily want to collect community feedback, add new content (e.g. more monsters, new dungeons) and improve the balance.
