Palworld Celebrates 32 Million Players Despite Nintendo’s Lawsuit Threats

Palworld has surpassed 32 million players across all platforms. The game, available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Steam, saw significant sales growth due in part to its cross-platform availability. Its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass also contributed to its widespread adoption. 

During its initial release, many criticized Palworld for being too similar to Pokemon. The resemblance sparked legal action from Nintendo, who acquired a new patent with the goal of building a legal case against Palworld. As of February 19, Nintendo has not made strong headway in their legal ventures against Palworld – but the situation is still developing. 

Despite potential legal challenges, Palworld’s ongoing updates and strong player base suggest that developer Pocketpair remains committed to supporting the game, which is still in early access a year after release in January of 2024.

For its second year, Pocketpair plans on implementing cross platform cooperative play, world transfers for pals, and a final boss for players to fight. No release date was announced for the new features. 

Palworld is an open world survival crafting game that allegedly takes iconic elements from the Pokemon franchise and implements them in a faster pace environment. Tameable “pals” can be used as work slaves, forced to do nothing but work, eat and sleep until their physical or mental health shuts down.