Palworld is officially the biggest third party launch ever on Xbox Game Pass

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you may have heard of a multiplayer survival game called Palworld which has some resemblance to that of Pokémon.

Before its launch, Palworld - developed by Pocket Pair - had been somewhat unfairly dubbed as “Pokémon with guns”. But it's much more than that. Sure, it has a lot of similarities such as the creatures of its world that have not only drawn the attention of Pokémon enthusiasts but also the eye of The Pokémon Company. However, while the creature similarities can be a tad striking, they can also be considered parodies in a way.

Check out the Palworld trailer below!

In our review of Palworld, we said, “It’s astonishing how much has been packed into Palworld given its Early Access status. Sure, the developers will probably expand the world, add in more Pals, and grow the story, too. But what we have here is already great, and features so many small details you’ll be amazed at what you discover. It’s a little rough around the edges in places, but the blueprint and starting product are more than enough to keep you going.”

So how much of a success has Palworld been since its launch on 19 January 2024 as an early-access title on PC and Xbox? According to SteamDB, Palworld has a whopping all-time concurrent player peak of 2,101,867. At the time of writing, it has garnered 1,471,270 concurrent players within the last 24 hours and just under 900,000 gamers are playing in its world right now.

What about Xbox? Well, Microsoft has just released the stats indicating just how popular Palworld is proving to be on the green brand as detailed on Xbox.com. Palworld is currently the biggest third-party launch on Xbox Game Pass with over seven million players. What’s more, Palworld is also the most-played third-party day-one release via cloud gaming on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

“The response from fans has been tremendous and it’s incredible to see the millions of players around the world enjoying Palworld,” said CEO of Pocket Pair Takuro Mizobe. “This is just the beginning for us and Palworld, and the feedback we’re gathering while in game preview will allow us to continue to improve the experience for Pal Tamers across all platforms.”

Palworld is out now on PC, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. A PlayStation port is yet to be announced.