Image: Pocketpair
Developer Pocketpair’s survival game Palworld is having a resurgence in popularity.
Palworld, a survival game featuring Pokemon-like creatures and mechanics, is experiencing a resurgence in popularity following the release of its new Feybreak update. The update launched on December 23, 2024, to a ballooning player base that seemed eager to dig into its new content over the holidays.
According to SteamDB, the game’s 24-hour concurrent player count peaked at roughly 206,000 players. It currently has roughly 117,000 concurrent players at the time of writing. Enough players have flooded into the game to hoist it back into Steam’s top 10 most played games.
Palworld’s latest update sees its player count soar to Steam’s top 10
Palworld’s latest update was a big one. The Feybreak update added an all-new island six times bigger than its last island, filled with new Pals to discover and new resources to unearth. The update adds new structures for players to build, a new faction to meet, a new level cap to grind out and more additions to almost every layer of its gameplay.
Pocketpair released the update right before Christmas, likely giving players much more time to dig into its contents over the holidays. That explains why the game’s player count has skyrocketed by almost 800% over the last weekend, with a 24-hour peak player count of roughly 206,000 at the time of writing.
The game is currently Steam’s seventh most-played game, dropping behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, but staying ahead of Banana and Rust.
The new update also saw Palworld change up its Pokeball-like catching mechanic, giving it at least one healthy difference from the Pokemon games. However, developer Pocketpair is still battling a lawsuit from The Pokemon Company and Nintendo over an abundance of other similarities with the Pokemon franchise.
