The role-playing epic can still defend itself against the new indie hit in one discipline – but the emphasis is on “still”!
What a lot of hype it was in the fall of 2023: Baldur’s Gate 3 is released, earns the highest GlobalESportNews rating of all time and sells millions of copies.
In the award season, the Larian team almost never leaves the stages of this world. The role-playing game wins big at the Game Awards including Game of the Year. Baldur’s Gate 3 sets new playtime records on Steam – A triumph for eternity? Apparently not!
Curtain up for Palworld. To put it like real DnD players: The indie phenomenon soon achieves critical success in its assault on Baldur’s Gate 3. We’re not saying that, Larian boss Swen Vincke says it himself.
It was a nice run
In the past few months, as already mentioned, it was mostly Baldur’s Gate 3 when it came to first place in any Steam statistics. In January 2024, the role-playing game was also the frontrunner among the most-played titles on the Steam Deck.
It was a nice run – pretty sure Palworld is going to kick our butt next month https://t.co/3lfJEKOM1H
– Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) February 1, 2024
According to Larian CEO Swen Vincke, the changing of the guard by Palworld is only a matter of time. Or as he puts it in a pleasantly casual dialect: Palworld will spank us next month.
A commenter on his tweet has the solution:
I guess it’s time for Paldur’s Gate
Capture cute mind flayers! Build your own citadel! Blow everything up with your wizard who eats your items!
The humorous answer from Swen Vincke: That’s a pretty good pitch, actually.
Palworld is still on the road to success
It’s no wonder that the above prediction by the Larian boss will come true. Just recently, Palworld developer Pocket Pair announced that the survival game now has a whopping 19 million players – 12 million via Steam and a further seven million on Xbox:
🎉Total number of players exceeds 19 million🎉
It’s been less than two weeks since Palworld was released, thank you!
・Steam: 12 million~ copies
・Xbox: 7 million~ playersWe will continue to prioritize fixing bugs!
Thank you for your continued support of Pocketpair! pic.twitter.com/twgAeYVL07– Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 31, 2024
According to SteamDB Palworld is now the 1 most played Steam game and has even overtaken PUBG: Battlegrounds – but only if you take the 24-hour peak as a basis (1. 355,332 players vs. 486,906 players)
The opposite is true for the all-time high: Here, PUBG: Battlegrounds still has a comfortable lead over Palworld (3,257,248 players vs. 2,101,867 players).
What do the above statistics tell us? Well, quite clearly: Many of you will also be playing Palworld enthusiastically at the moment! And because we know that time on the island can come with a lot of questions, problems and challenges, we’ve created lots of helpful guides for you. You can find a taste in the box above, take a look!
