By Sagar V. Mankar The quirky monster-catching survival game Palworld took the gaming world by storm when it launched in January 2024, quickly garnering over 2 million concurrent players on Steam.
However, recent data shows that the game’s hype may be fading fast.
What’s Behind the Massive 70% Player Drop?
In the first two weeks after launch, Palworld lost a whopping 1.5 million players – around 70% of its peak concurrent player count.
As of February 13th, it sits at just 356,000 concurrent players on Steam.
This stands as the largest player drop ever on Steam.
Several factors likely contributed to this steep drop-off:
- Fading hype and curiosity – Many players initially tried Palworld out of morbid curiosity about its controversial premise. Once the novelty wore off, these players moved on. Palworld was a short-lived “soup du jour” for some.
- Competition from new releases – Major multiplayer titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Helldivers 2 launched after Palworld and soaked up players. Streamers seeking the next big thing migrated to these new releases.
- Server issues – Early server instability and long queue times may have also driven away some impatient players.
Is This the End for Palworld?
Despite the loss of over a million players, Palworld still maintains a reasonably strong 356,000 concurrent users.
For an indie early access game, these are great numbers.
As one Steam user put it: “A decrease in players just means the hype settled down.”
Developer Pocketpair has an extensive roadmap planned, including new content updates that could bring lapsed players back into the fold.
Recent patches focused on improving server performance also show they are committed to the long haul.
The game maintains an active subreddit and dedicated fanbase creating mods and fan content.
So while the insane hype of the launch may have faded, there’s still a large core audience engaged with Palworld on Steam and Xbox Game Pass.
Only time will tell if Palworld is just the flavor of the month or the start of a promising new franchise.
But one thing’s for sure – it will be an unforgettable entry in the 2024 gaming almanac!