Along with selling 12 million copies on Steam and seven million copies on Xbox since January 19th, Microsoft has confirmed “Pokémon with guns” game Palworld is the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever.
“The response from fans has been tremendous and it’s incredible to see the millions of players around the world enjoying Palworld,” Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said in an interview with Xbox. “This is just the beginning for us and Palworld, and the feedback we’re gathering while in Game Preview will allow us to continue to improve the experience for Pal Tamers across all platforms.”
Microsoft says that Palworld is also the largest third-party launch on Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and that on Xbox, the game’s peak player count has hit a height of 3 million daily active users.
The obviously Pokémon-inspired title has hit monumental levels of popularity, catching Nintendo’s attention. The Japanese gaming giant recently said it plans to “investigate” Palworld regarding “acts that infringe on intellectual property related to Pokémon.” Defending his company in an interview with Automaton, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe says that Palworld cleared legal review and that no legal action has been taken against the developer.
While Palworld and Pokémon have obvious similarities, the title is far darker, allowing you to equip some Pals with guns, butcher them for food for other Pals and exploit their labour, just to name a few examples. Palworld is also very incomplete (especially on Xbox) and is riddled with bugs, glitches and frustratingly stupid AI. On the other hand, the title also features solid base-building mechanics and in some ways, is the Pokémon game I’ve wanted since I was a child.
While Palworld is the game of the moment right now, it will be interesting to see if Pocketpair can maintain this momentum.
Palworld costs $29.99 on Xbox and Steam. The game is also part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($16.99/month) and PC Game Pass ($9.99/month).
Image credit: Pocketpair
Source: Xbox
