Palworld smashes Steam records for highest concurrent players on a paid game right now – Destructoid

Nobody is surprised that Palworld turned into a big hit. Gamers love Pokémon, guns, and surviving. It should come as no big surprise that a game that competently mixes those elements is doing well.

What feels completely wild, however, is this game from a mostly unknown company seemingly becoming a record-shattering hit overnight.

Palworld‘s official English-language Twitter account has just tweeted a thank you note for Steam users who made Palworld the game with more paid concurrent players out of any game in the history of the platform.

The numbers are amazing, but that’s not quite accurate

Palworld, a game that came pretty much out of nowhere, did manage to beat huge company-backed juggernauts such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and even 2024’s best-selling game. Yes, that one about the wizard school that’s based on the works of that questionable writer inexplicably became the best-selling game of the past year.

Those are exceptional numbers, yes, though the world-record part isn’t accurate. While it’s true that Palworld has the current record for the highest concurrent players for games that are currently not free, it doesn’t have the all-time record. That still belongs to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, now very confusingly titled PUBG: Battlegrounds. Back in its heyday, the game by PUBG Corporation managed to hit over three million concurrent players, which is three times what Palworld has now. It’s hard to even begin to grasp just how big that game used to be, even though it still pulls huge numbers today. The reason why we’re ignoring PUBG’s gargantuan numbers is that the game has since gone free-to-play.

Still, Palworld’s run has just started, and the game is also likely amassing huge numbers of players on Xbox consoles and the Xbox Game Pass. Only time will tell how many more records Palworld will beat and if it can beat this one in particular.

You can now help Palworld beat this absurd record on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.