(Image credit: Pocketpair)
Palworld launched in early access at the dawn of 2024, making headlines with its staggering achievements. Selling a jaw-dropping 2 million copies in just 24 hours, it became only the second game in Steam history to reach 2 million concurrent players. Despite dealing with unstable servers and legal skirmishes with Nintendo regarding its resemblance to Pokemon, Palworld is celebrated as a beacon of indie success. Yet, the creative minds at Pocketpair still find themselves baffled by the formula that led to their concoction’s magic.
Previously, Pocketpair enjoyed moderate success, mainly within Asia, nothing that paralleled Palworld’s global triumph. Originally, they envisioned Palworld catering to a Japanese audience once more.
During a Game Developer’s Conference panel, John ‘Bucky’ Buckley, community manager of Pocketpair, explained, “The initial thinking for Palworld was that this was a game for a Japanese audience again…But we quickly got over a million wishlists within that first year.” The game advanced rapidly, climbing to number three on Steam wishlists in 2023. As Buckley noted, the peak they experienced around November 2023 was unprecedented. “We don’t know. If we knew how to do it, we’d do it again, but we have no idea what happened,” Buckley confessed.
Similar to many indie games that accelerate beyond developers’ expectations, Palworld‘s launch mirrored challenges faced by other titles like Enshrouded and Helldivers 2. For Pocketpair, the realization of Palworld’s potential unfolded on the launch night.
“Not a lot of people know this, but most of our company at that time was a remote company,” Buckley revealed. They planned a modest celebration expecting a routine launch, but were taken aback when the game’s servers, including those from Epic Games, crashed soon after launch. Buckley recounted, “Our network engineer, our one network engineer, said the game has crashed. The Epic servers have crashed. That’s when things started to get weird.”
Over just a week, Palworld hit a “disgusting number” as Buckley described, that spanned Steam and Xbox. Repeatedly questioned about the success, Buckley reiterated, “I don’t know, please don’t ask me. Seeing this today still kind of freaks me out.” In a month, they amassed 25 million players but chose to step back from publicity due to “bad vibes” entering the atmosphere.
These disturbing vibes involved criticisms labeling Palworld as “Pokemon with guns,” a comparison sensitive to developers considering The Pokemon Company’s aggressive legal strategies. Buckley also lamented the criticism for alleged plagiarism and the abusive threats directed at developers. The unexpected lawsuit from Nintendo, which they never anticipated, shocked them during the same GDC panel.
Despite these challenges, Palworld continues to soar, recently surpassing 32 million players. However, Pocketpair remains mystified about their unprecedented ascent.
Buckley reflects, “Very few companies could survive a launch like theirs: ‘A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure, under the negativity.'”