"We're doing just fine:" Palworld dev addresses hate surrounding the survival game, says it's just "an easy 500k views" that "doesn't actually have any impact on the game"

Despite its popularity, creature collector survival game mashup Palworld hasn't come without its fair share of controversy among other developers and fans – but according to Pocketpair's communications director and publishing manager, criticism of the game has no "impact" on its success.

John 'Bucky' Buckley reveals as much in a new online post, responding to a fan who dubs "hate" surrounding Palworld "performative" rather than genuine. "My life is Palworld 24/7, and I promise you, you only ever see people ranting about it on Twitter and Bluesky," the community lead explains in his reply. "It's an easy 500k views, which is why it'll always be topical to whinge about. It is what it is."

What sort of effect does it have on Palworld or its ever-growing fan base? Apparently, not a very significant one. "Doesn't actually have any impact on the game or community," as Bucky puts it. The dev then follows up on his thread with a Steam screenshot showcasing the game's status on Valve's platform – specifically its "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating overall and its "Very Positive" recent reviews, both of which have thousands.

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The game boasts a solid 95% on Steam (94% if you're only counting the "recent" reviews tab) – and it's not likely to die down in popularity any time soon. Judging by its SteamDB stats, Palworld currently ranks at #64 on the list of currently most-played games, with a 24-hour peak of 45,189 players. Its all-time record is even more impressive, sitting at 2,101,867. With the 1.0 release scheduled for next year, who knows… that figure might even grow.

There's obviously no way of telling where Palworld's success will go, but it's certainly safe to say that even bad press truly can be good press, so to speak. It's no secret that when, about a year ago, the Nintendo-owned Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair for patent infringement, more eyes landed on the game – and despite the legal debacle, plenty of them seem to approve of its survival-based charms.

"Nintendo is so wrong, it hurts" – US IP expert says Nintendo claiming mods don't invalidate its Pokemon patents is "just a loser argument" and a "Hail Mary" in its ongoing legal fight with Palworld.