Palworld could soon overtake Counter-Strike on Steam.
Update from January 23, 2024 at 3:59 p.m.:
Blink briefly and Palworld pushes past Counter-Strike. The new survival game reached over 30 minutes ago 1.86 Millionn active players at the same time and relegated the shooter with his record of 1.82 million players in second place.
Original message from January 23, 2024 at 1:12 p.m.:
Maybe you’ve already noticed: There’s a new hype game on Steam that actually lives up to the number of players according to this description. Palworld’s early access launch was more than satisfactory for developer Pocketpair. It’s even going well that even Counter-Strike’s veteran shooter can already see the Pals crystal clear in the rearview mirror.
Palworld is breathing down Counter-Strike’s neck
The mix of farming, building, fighting and catching monsters easily broke the barrier of one million simultaneously active players on Steam in the first weekend after the early access release.
On Monday, Palworld scratched according to SteamDB already at the 1.6 million players and is therefore pretty close to the record set by Steam’s long-running Counter-Strike. Valve’s multiplayer shooter reached its own peak in May 2023 more than 1.8 million players active at the same time. At that time it was still called CS:GO.
You have no idea what Palworld is? Check out the first few minutes of the game:
9:16
Palworld: Our first minutes in the big new Steam hit
Is PUBG coming now? The Steam throne has been occupied by the battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds for a good six years. The game was released in January 2018 over 3.2 million players.
Via X, formerly Twitter, Pocketpair announced that Palworld had already sold six million copies and was able to reach over 1.7 million active players at the same time.
Link to Twitter content
These numbers also include players who purchased Palworld on PC or Xbox via the Microsoft Store or play via Game Pass. However, there are a few differences between the Steam and Game Pass versions.
It remains to be seen whether Palworld will take the lead on Steam. The Steam reviews are closed 93 percent positive and the game also performed well in our test for the early access version linked above.
Do you think Palworld will overtake PUBG or is it already failing because of Counter-Strike? Is it just a short hype or can the survival Pokémon mix establish itself permanently? Feel free to write your opinion in the comments.
