Palworld has proven popular enough to attract 19 million players, which means server costs are quite high.
Somehow, despite my own reservations about the game’s appearance, Palworld has managed to attract 19 million players on Steam and Xbox, 12 million of which are on Steam only, and that’s how much it’s selling on the PC storefront. That’s a ridiculously high number that easily cements it as the most popular indie game of the year, and likely one of the most successful games of the year. But success comes at a high price, as Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe can attest.
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In a recent tweet from Mizobe, the CEO said that server costs for the game, which was only released on January 19, have reached 70.53 million yen, which is approximately £376,276/$475,349. “Wait, maybe they will go bankrupt because of the server costs?” Mizobe jokingly wrote next to a picture showing the server costs. That fee doesn’t even cover the entire month of the game’s release, so by February 19th, the monthly cost will likely be higher.
Palworld’s lead network engineer Chujo Hiroto also jokingly responded to Mizobe’s tweet, writing “In line with the order not to let the service go down under any circumstances, we have prepared the server regardless of the cost. We will continue to go all out to ensure that all players can enjoy it! US$478,000…”
It is important to note that since Palworld is a one-time purchase, unlike MMOs, the game does not provide an ongoing revenue stream. Additionally, while an update is being planned, the only DLC currently available for the game is the soundtrack. Then again, 19 million players have probably made a ton of money, so I wouldn’t be too worried if I were you.
Pocketpair released the latest patch for Palworld earlier this week, and unfortunately for the Pal-thieves out there, you can no longer steal other players’ Pal.