With over 1.8 million concurrent players, Palworld tops a huge Counter-Strike 2 Steam milestone

Palworld High Quality Oil
(Image credit: Pocketpair, Inc.)

Palworld has now eclipsed Counter-Strike 2's all-time concurrent player record to take the number two spot on Steam's list of most concurrent players ever.

Earlier today, January 23, Palworld developer Pocketpair announced that the new action-RPG had surpassed 1.85 million players at once on Steam. This is a huge milestone, because according to the statistics from Steam just below, this takes it beyond Counter-Strike 2's all-time concurrent player record, a major feat.

Palworld is now sitting pretty as the second biggest-ever game on Steam in terms of concurrent players, only behind Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, which takes the top spot with a mind-boggling 3.2 million players at once. Palworld has its work cut out if it wants to take the top spot from PUBG.

Just yesterday in fact, we reported how Palworld had eclipsed 1,582,482 million concurrent players on Steam, which effectively made it a bigger Steam launch than Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077. Considering those two games are from world-renowned developers, Palworld's really pulled off the impossible here.

Back when Palworld first reached one million concurrent players, it became just the sixth game to ever achieve the feat on Steam. Interestingly enough, it actually beat Cyberpunk 2077 to the punch with that milestone. 

What's more, Palworld is still in early access. When the game's theoretical 1.0 launch eventually rolls around at some point in the future, we could see this concurrent player count eclipsed, assuming Pocketpair can keep its player base coming back for more until then.

Read up on our Palworld High Quality Oil guide for a look at where to obtain the extremely elusive item.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.