Pokémon-with-guns game Palworld is so popular its servers are struggling to keep up
Shifts a million copies in eight hours
Palworld was obviously destined for success the moment a million games journalists and Twitter users wrote “Pokémon with machine guns”. (Acceptable alternate nicknames include “Eevees with uzis” and “Abras who’ll stab-ya”.) Having finally launched into Early Access on Steam and Game Pass this week, that prophecy has rung true as the monster-catching survival game has caught (ha, ha) so many players that its servers are struggling to handle the load.
Pocketpair announced that the game had sold one million copies in just eight hours, seemingly passing the impressive figure without factoring in players who have downloaded it for free via PC Game Pass. As well as PC, the game launched on Xbox Series X|S earlier today, January 19th.
That rapid success has come at a price: Palworld’s servers, which are currently throwing up connection errors and other issues, requiring players to try and connect multiple times or wait to get into a multiplayer match.
“We are blown away with the response to Palworld and we're doing our best to respond to your issues!” Pocketpair wrote on X-Twitter. “Currently, our server provider is reporting that due to the large amount of concurrent players, the servers have become unstable and you may be experiencing issues connecting to servers.”
Palworld’s popularity is easy to explain, offering up some legally-distinct-if-just monsters - known as Pals - you can equip with a bunch of guns and set to tasks such as construction, farming or, uh, crafting more guns in factories. You can also do distinctly un-Pokémon-like things like eating your caught creatures or sneaking in to poach endangered monsters from sanctuaries. You can even catch and sell other humans, just like your Pals.
The familiar designs and dystopian weapon manufacturing add to the sense that it’s all a bit naughty, the kind of game that would’ve made for an amazing playground rumour in 1999 but actually exists for real now. The game’s wildfire success and Very Positive reception on Steam point at a game that somehow manages to deliver on its ridiculous premise beyond a mere novelty, too.
Palworld is due to stay in Early Access for around a year, with Pocketpair planning to add to the more than 100 monsters and open world already in the game with new creatures, regions, dungeons and deeper survival aspects in the months to come.