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  1. Games
  2. Survival Games
  3. Palworld

Palworld lead shrugs off "dead game" suggestions as Pocketpair's survival hit continues to bring in half a million concurrent Steam players mid-week, weeks after 1.0 launch

News
By George Young
Published 31 July 2026

"Goofs aside, thanks again for making 1.0 such a success, gamers," says Bucky

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Palworld pal Herbil has a surprised expression in official animated short Finders Keepers.
(Image credit: Pocketpair)
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Pocketpair's head of publishing and communications John 'Bucky' Buckley has been teasing people that call Palworld a "dead game" on social media by pointing out that it still has a massive half a million concurrent players mid-week.

Shortly after its 2024 early access launch on PC and Xbox, the creature-collecting, survival-crafting game hit a massive peak on Steam with over 2 million concurrent players. In the two years since, Palworld has also been ported to PS5, giving people even more ways to play.

Palworld might not have seen the same number of concurrent players on Steam since that time, but the playerbase has been steadily growing. In fact, Pocketpair announced that Palworld surpassed 40 million players not long before its full release. It has truly gone from strength to strength.

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However, its concurrent Steam players have declined since its peak, which is natural given that it's now available on other platforms, and the new-game-hype has died down. That hasn't stopped people from pointing out that, at 'just' half a million concurrents, Palworld has fallen to 25% of the concurrent players it had at its peak.

Bucky, however, has clapped back at the haters on social media, pointing out that despite the natural dip in concurrent players, Palworld is still wildly successful. Noting that three weeks have passed since the game's 1.0 launch but it's "still hitting half a mil [concurrent users] midweek," on Steam he describes its popularity as "bonkers."

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  • Palworld creatures opening gifts Palworld being best-reviewed Steam game of 2026 is "nothing short of miraculous" says Pocketpair dev
  • Palworld creature with white snakes for hair Palworld 1.1 is "something players have been screaming at us to do" after "soft prologue" of 1.0

It’s been 3 weeks since 1.0 dropped, and we’re still hitting half a mil ccu midweek?Bonkers. There’s people out there absolutely dying to post “Palworld lost X% of their players! Dead game!!”, and at this rate they’ll have to wait at least another week or two…😔 pic.twitter.com/tmYuxBoms8July 30, 2026

He ends the message by joking that haters will have to wait a few more weeks before claiming Palworld is dead again. "There’s people out there absolutely dying to post 'Palworld lost X% of their players! Dead game!!'" he says, "and at this rate they'll have to wait at least another week or two…"

Following up on the post further down in the thread, he adds: "Goofs aside, thanks again for making 1.0 such a success, gamers."

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Palworld dev Pocketpair demonstrates that it's pro mods, even those cursed NSFW ones, by releasing a patch to improve their stability.

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George Young
George Young
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Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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