Palworld’s 1.0 release has proven that the game’s momentum is far from over. More than two years after its record-breaking Early Access debut, the game is still climbing Steam’s charts.
Palworld 1.0 Climbs Steam’s All-Time Charts
Palworld Has Made Steam History Twice
Palworld has once again become one of Steam’s biggest success stories, with the creature-collecting survival game posting another massive surge in players following the launch of its long-awaited Version 1.0.
At the time of writing, Palworld has reached a 24-hour peak of 855,525 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. That figure accounts only for Steam users and does not include players on PS5, Xbox consoles, Microsoft for PC, or even Xbox Game Pass, where the game is also available.
It’s still well below its historic peak of more than 2.1 million concurrent Steam players, but this surge is one of the largest player comebacks the platform has seen. Prior to Version 1.0, Palworld had settled into a healthy but comparatively modest average of around 30,000 to 50,000 concurrent players on Steam. Since the full release, however, that figure has surged more than 16-fold, which makes Version 1.0 among Steam's biggest launches ever. In fact, the milestone is so notable that the game now occupies two separate spots on Steam’s all-time highest-concurrent-player list: once at rank 3 for its Early Access launch, and again at rank 14 for its 1.0 release.
Steam’s current all-time concurrent player rankings are as follows:
⚫︎ PUBG: Battlegrounds - 3.3 million
⚫︎ Black Myth: Wukong - 2.4 million
⚫︎ Palworld Early Access - 2.1 million
⚫︎ Counter-Strike 2 - 1.8 million
⚫︎ Monster Hunter: Wilds - 1.38 million
⚫︎ Lost Ark - 1.32 million
⚫︎ Dota 2 - 1.30 million
⚫︎ Cyberpunk 2077 - 1.10 million
⚫︎ Elden Ring - 960,000
⚫︎ Banana - 920,000
⚫︎ New World: Aeternum - 913,000
⚫︎ Hogwarts Legacy - 879,000
⚫︎ Baldur's Gate 3 - 875,000
⚫︎ Palworld 1.0 - 850,000
⚫︎ Battlefield 6 - 747,000
With more than 855,000 concurrent players, Palworld 1.0 has already climbed into SteamDB's all-time top 15, sitting just behind Baldur's Gate 3.
Moreover, as of writing, Palworld sits second in both current players and 24-hour peak concurrent players, behind only Counter-Strike 2. In doing so, it has overtaken other games, including DOTA 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
Given that player counts have continued to increase each day since the game's full release on July 10, the title could potentially re-enter Steam's all-time top 10 if the upward trend continues.
Pocketpair Says it Overhauled "Almost Every Major System"
Palworld's renewed popularity appears to be driven by the sheer scale of Version 1.0. The update introduces a new region, dozens of new and redesigned Pals, an expanded main story centered around the World Tree, new multiplayer features, base-building improvements, and numerous quality-of-life changes accumulated throughout more than two years of Early Access development. Pocketpair also chose to keep the game's price unchanged despite the scope of the update.
In our interview with John "Bucky" Buckley, Head of Publishing & Communications at Pocketpair, Buckley said the studio had overhauled "almost every major system" in the game during Early Access. Because of those sweeping changes, he explained that the developers themselves recommend that returning players begin a completely new save file to experience Version 1.0 as intended.
Judging by Palworld's resurgence on Steam, many players appear to be doing just that.
Those changes also left a strong impression in our review of Palworld, where we found that the full release delivers on the promise shown during Early Access. It isn't without flaws, but they do little to diminish an otherwise rewarding survival sandbox.
For more on our thoughts regarding Palworld 1.0, check out our review below!
Source:
Steam’s All-Time Player Count Charts
Steam’s Concurrent Player Count Charts
Palworld on X | Palworld Celebrating 850,000 Concurrent Players
Great article, really topical!