Palworld Nears 1 Million Concurrent Steam Players Again After 1.0 Launch

Palworld has come within touching distance of a million concurrent players on Steam for the second weekend running, peaking at 961,867 users as of July 20 and pushing Dota 2 down into third place on the platform behind only Counter-Strike 2. The surge follows the game’s full 1.0 release on 10 July, which ended a two-and-a-half-year stint in early access.

Knocking Dota 2 off the podium once is unusual. Doing it twice in a fortnight is the part worth pausing on.

The Numbers

Palworld’s peak of 961,867 concurrent users came in a single 24-hour window, and that figure covers Steam alone, with the game also available across other platforms. The scale of the jump is clearest against where it had settled: its peak on 29 June, days before the update, was 58,000 users. Month over month, the player count has climbed by more than 1,700 percent.

It still has not matched its own record. Palworld’s 2.1 million concurrent peak from early 2024 remains one of only three times any game has passed two million on Steam, alongside PUBG and Black Myth: Wukong. Only five other games have ever broken a single million: Counter-Strike 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Lost Ark, Dota 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. What makes the current run stand out is the company Palworld is keeping while charging for entry, since PUBG, Counter-Strike 2, Lost Ark and Dota 2 are all nominally free-to-play, expansions and battle passes aside.

Read More: Windrose Hits 1 Million Sales in 6 Days With 222K Concurrent Players

What 1.0 Actually Added

The update behind the rebound was substantial enough that its patch notes could not fit inside Steam’s storefront. It introduced 72 new Pals, added fresh areas to the open world and overhauled existing ones, raised the player cap, rebalanced and tweaked almost every element of the base game, and brought in a raft of new mechanics. Review sentiment has been climbing again in its wake.

The Lawsuit Still Running Underneath

Palworld entered early access in January 2024 and immediately drew the “Pokemon with guns” label, thanks to familiar-looking creature designs and some overlapping mechanics. Nintendo announced in September 2024 that it was suing developer Pocketpair for infringement of multiple patents, later confirmed as three in particular. Pocketpair responded in a December update by removing the ability to summon creatures by throwing Pokeball-style Pal Spheres, a change made while the case was live and one that has not stopped the game returning to the top of the charts eighteen months later.