Palworld Has Crossed 32 Million Players on Steam, PS5 and Xbox

Palworld, the Pokémon-inspired survival game from Japanese studio Pocketpair, has crossed a significant milestone. The game has reached 32 million players across different platforms, the developer announced Wednesday. Palworld player count continues to rise even as Pocketpair faces a patent infringement lawsuit from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company that seeks an injunction on the game and compensation for damages incurred.

Palworld Hits 32 Million Players

A little over a year after Palworld's release, Pocketpair confirmed the game had gone past 32 million players across PC (Steam), Xbox and PS5. While the developer did not share individual numbers for each platform, Xbox Game Pass subscribers likely form a sizable chunk of those players.

Back in February 2024, Pocketpair confirmed Palworld had crossed 25 million players on PC and Xbox, with 15 million copies sold on Steam and 10 million players on Xbox, including Game Pass members. Microsoft confirmed at the time that Palworld was the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever and the most played title on its platforms. The game was later released on PS5 in September 2024.

Palworld's record-breaking launch in January 2024 thrust the game into limelight as it sold six million copies within days of its release. As its player count has ballooned, the game has become one of the most played titles in Steam history. Palworld is now the third most played game on Valve's platform with an all-time peak concurrent player count of over two million, behind only PUBG: Battlegrounds and Black Myth: Wukong, according to SteamDB charts.

But even as Palworld's popularity continues to grow, Pocketpair is battling a patent infringement lawsuit from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company over the game's alleged similarities with Pokémon titles. The two companies say Palworld infringes multiple patent rights pertaining to Pokémon.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction on Palworld, in addition to damages from Pocketpair to the tune of over JPY 5 million (roughly Rs. 27.7 lakh).

"It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit," Pocketpair had initially said when the lawsuit was filed. The developer later said it would continue to assert its position in the case through future legal proceedings.