Palworld passes 25 million players on PC and Xbox, 15 million copies sold on Steam

Palworld, the survival action-adventure title that broke Steam player count records at launch, has sold 15 million copies on Valve’s platform. Developers Pocketpair announced Thursday that the game’s total player count has surpassed 25 million, with 15 million players on Steam and 10 million players on Xbox. Since its release last month, Palworld has become a phenomenon, becoming one of the most played games in Steam history, despite attracting accusations of plagiarism for its Pokémon-style in-game creatures that players can capture, train and use in battle.

Japanese studio Pocketpair, the creators of Palworld, confirmed in a post on X Thursday that the game has passed 25 million total players, with 15 million copies sold on Steam. The survival title also has 10 million players on Xbox, although some of that number will likely be players who access the game through Xbox Game Pass.

Last month, Microsoft had confirmed that Palworld was the biggest third-party Game Pass launch and the most played game on its platforms. Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe called player response “overwhelming” at the time. “This is just the beginning for us and Palworld, and the feedback we gather while in Game Preview will allow us to continue to improve the experience for Pal Tamers across all platforms,” ​​he added.

Palworld is currently the fifth most played game on Steam, with 206,401 concurrent players at the time of writing, according to SteamDB diagrams. The platform’s all-time peak player count is second only to PUBG: Battlegrounds.

Although the number of players in Palworld grew, the game was subject to controversy regarding the design of its in-game creatures called Pals. Several players, developers, and commentators have accused the game of plagiarizing creature designs from Pokémon.

The Pokémon Company issued a statement last month addressing the allegations of plagiarism and confirming that it intends to investigate all alleged instances of copyright infringement. “We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not given any permission to use Pokémon intellectual property or assets in this game,” the company said in a statement.

Palworld went into Early Access on January 19th and is available for PC (via Steam), Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X and is also included in Xbox Game Pass. The game features Pokémon-style animals, or Pals, that can be captured and tamed to battle, traverse, and base-build in the game’s open world.