Overnight, the new hit sensation video game Palworld has taken the world by storm. The new game—referred to by many as Pokemon with guns—has sold over 5 million copies in just one weekend, skyrocketing to the top of Steam’s charts, racing past huge hits like Cyberpunk 2077, DOTA 2 and more to become the third most-played game on Steam . . . ever.
By Monday, Palworld had broken 1.5 million concurrent players, which means it trails just two games in Steam history: Counter-Strike 2 and PUBG. It’s a breathtaking ascent that has left everyone, including me, more than a little taken aback. We all know Pokemon is popular, but Palworld’s success proves just how much Nintendo’s franchise has stagnated over the years. Pokemon is popular, but gamers want more than what’s been on offer, especially with the buggy release of that series’ latest entries.
Besides, Palworld does more than just turn-based rock/paper/scissors battles, giving players a lot more to do with their adorable critters than just fight, like gather resources and build bases and so forth. PvP, guilds and other modes are planned for the future. The game is currently in Early Access.
Palworld’s huge success on Steam isn’t the only thing worth talking about, however. The game is also available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox on PC. If you have Game Pass you can play it right now for free. If you have Game Pass Ultimate or Game Pass for PC, you can play it on PC for free without shelling out $27 on Steam. The game is also available via Xbox Cloud, so you can play without even installing it if you want to.
Of course, if you don’t want to play via the Xbox ecosystem on PC and don’t have an Xbox console, you’ll only be out thirty bucks buying Palworld, which isn’t too bad compared to a lot of games these days!
