Taking the crown of being the first mega-hit of 2024, Palworld managed to gain one million copies sold just eight hours after launch. Now 24 hours in, the Pocket Pair-developed game has already crossed the 2 million copies sold mark, and it"s steadily breaking through Steam concurrent records too.
The announcement arrived via Palworld social media channels a few hours ago, which was quickly followed up by an update regarding the connection issues players are facing.
Palworld has sold over 2 million copies in 24 hours since release!
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 20, 2024
Thank you to everyone for playing!#Pocketpair #Palworld pic.twitter.com/gosLEqUjnq
On Steam alone, the game is currently only behind Counter-Strike 2 for concurrent players, with the number almost nearing 900,000 on the platform. Don"t forget that the game is also available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles, as well as Microsoft"s behemoth Xbox and PC Game Pass subscription services.
The crunch caused by the sheer number of players attempting to connect had also caused the developer to have a "an emergency meeting with the Epic Games team and had them add an update to the Epic Games backend at short notice." The connection issues seem to be resolved for now thanks to these measures.
While releasing in early access form, the title has been praised for its stability and gameplay options rewarding creativity. Developed by the Japanese development studio Pocket Pair, Palworld offers a multiplayer survival sandbox to "fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called Pals". This isn"t the studio"s only crack at a survival experience either, with 2020"s Craftopia still being in early access form.
Despite being likened to Pokemon by many, Palworld has much darker elements such as killing, overworking, and enslaving Pals, leaving behind the "wholesome" nature of titles with similar critters.
According to the game"s Steam store page, Palworld is slated to be in early access for at least one year.