It’s feeling like January 2024 with how much hype has generated around Palworld.
Almost two and a half years since the creature-catcher launched into Steam early access, the game’s 1.0 update launched late last night in the US and Pal-catchers are flocking back in droves, with Steam peaks approaching half a million concurrents.
Today’s peak is already hovering around 490,000 and it’s just the early morning hours in the East. It’s highly unlikely the game will ever touch its unfathomable 2.1 million concurrent players that it hit in 2024, but it’s clear that there’s big interest in the game once again.
The full 1.0 update for Palworld is genuinely massive, and the patch notes were so long that it couldn’t even fit on Steam’s API properly. There’s 72 new Pals to catch, but that’s just scratching the surface of everything that’s been added. There’s also a new area to explore, an overhaul to Sanctuaries, a lengthy list of tweaks to mechanics and quality-of-life updates and optimizations, and the mysterious World Tree has finally been revealed in a big improvement and addition to the game’s story and lore.
As if all of the new content wasn’t enough to entice players to come back, the game is also on sale from its already-fair pricing. It’s currently 30 percent off on Steam for $20.99, and with potential dozens-to-hundreds of hours on offer, that’s genuinely good value.
I find it very easy to root for Palworld and its devs at Pocketpair, as this project has clearly been a passion of theirs for several years. The game has already received a number of substantial content updates, but none bigger than this one.
I’m looking forward to starting up a new save this weekend and poking around to see what’s changed since I last played.
