Palworld dev insists it’s fine to ‘take a break’ as player count declines

Following a successful launch, debates surrounding Palworld’s declining player count have broken out, which has prompted a dev to provide a response and reassure players.

As far as numbers go, Palworld is one of the biggest success stories in gaming history. The survival/crafting title seemingly evaded everyone’s radar before bursting onto the scene and taking the world by storm.

The Pokemon-inspired third-person survival game from Pocketpair racked up millions of players within the first week of going live. It has also registered over 12 million sales on Steam alongside a peak concurrent player count of more than 2 million users.

Initially dismissed as a ‘Pokemon rip-off‘ by some, Palworld has managed to garner a massive community, and it remains incredibly popular even after a month since launch. However, the game’s player count has shown signs of decline as it is lagging behind the likes of Counter-Striker 2 and Dota 2 at the time of writing.

Now a Palworld Community Manager, ‘Bucky_cm,’ has responded in an X post, reassuring players that the numbers are nothing to worry about.

They started by mentioning their own modest expectations for Palworld before its release, “In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark. Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to reach into the millions.”

“It has taken years to get to this point, and Palworld only really begins from here. Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals.”

With Palworld quickly approaching the 1-month mark, it's interesting to look back at my own thoughts for launch.

In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark. Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to… pic.twitter.com/1rZaV30QON

— Bucky | Palworld & Craftopia (@Bucky_cm) February 14, 2024

They went on to address the player count discourse, insisting that fans moving on to other titles while they wait for new content isn’t a cause for concern.

“This emerging ‘Palworld has lost X% of its player base’ discourse is lazy, but it’s probably also a good time to step in and reassure those of you capable of reading past a headline that it is fine to take breaks from games.”

“You don’t need to feel bad about that. Palworld, like many games before it, isn’t in a position to pump out massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis. New content will come, and it’s going to be awesome, but these things take a little bit of time,” they continued.

The dev concluded the post on a positive note encouraging players to try out other games and inviting them back to Palworld in the future. Their response seemed to go down well with the community, and it remains to be seen if future updates can reinvigorate Palworld’s player base.

Until then, check out every Boss and Alpha Pal and how to beat them, and the best Neutral Pals in Palworld.