Palworld , a Pokémon-inspired survival game from Japanese studio Pocketpair, has passed a major milestone. The developer announced Wednesday that the game has 32 million players across different platforms. Although Pocketpair faces patent infringement lawsuits from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for damages caused, Palworld’s player base continues to grow.
The number of Palworld players exceeds 32 million
More than a year after the release of Palworld, Pocketpair confirmed that the game has surpassed 32 million players on PC (Steam), Xbox, and PS5. While the developer didn’t reveal specific numbers for each platform, Xbox Game Pass subscribers likely make up a sizable portion of those players.
🎉Over 32 million Pal Tamers! 🎉
It’s been a year since Palworld launched, and thanks to our fans, Palworld has over 32 million players across all platforms! (Steam, Xbox, PS5)
Thank you so much!
As always, your support means the world to us! pic.twitter.com/pSJXmLGoh8— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) February 19, 2025
As early as February 2024, Pocketpair confirmed that the number of players of “Palworld” on PC and Xbox has exceeded 25 million, of which 15 million copies have been sold on Steam, and the number of players on Xbox has reached 10 million, including Game Pass members. Microsoft confirmed at the time that Palworld was the largest third-party Game Pass launch ever and the most played game on its platform. The game will then be released on PS5 in September 2024.
Palworld’s record-breaking launch in January 2024 thrust the game into the spotlight, selling 6 million copies within days of release. As the number of players has exploded, the game has become one of the most played games in Steam history. According to the SteamDB chart, “Palworld” is currently the third most popular game on the Valve platform, with the highest number of simultaneous online players in history exceeding 2 million, second only to “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” and “Black Myth: Wukong”.
But even as Palworld’s popularity continues to grow, Pocketpair is still fighting a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company over the game’s alleged similarities to the Pokémon games. The two companies said Palworld infringed on multiple patents related to Pokémon.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction against Palworld, and Pocketpair is also required to pay damages of over 5 million yen (approximately Rs. 2.77 million).
Pocketpair initially said when the lawsuit was filed: “It is truly unfortunate that as a result of this lawsuit we will be forced to allocate a significant amount of our time to matters unrelated to game development.” The developer later said it would continue to defend its position in the case through future legal proceedings.