Palworld player slump has us begging for PvP
They say that the only way you go from the top is back down, and unfortunately for Pocket Pair's Palworld, that fall from grace could be coming much quicker than expected. The game has had a meteoric rise since it entered early access on January 19, and by the looks of it, it's having just as much of a meteoric drop.
The hook of "Pokemon with guns" might only be able to get you so far, and as players wait for a slew of promised features from the Palworld roadmap, player numbers are taking a hit. Although we've already seen Helldivers 2 knock Palworld from the top of Steam, there's more to come.
Palworld player numbers continue to fall
Click to enlargeAs highlighted by Forbes, Palworld player numbers have dropped by two-thirds since its debut. Palworld has been a victim of its own success, and having reached a concurrent player peak of 2,101,867, any form of drop-off was going to be more noticeable.
It's important to remember that at of the time of writing, Palworld currently has 526,924 players on SteamDB and is still the second most-played game on Steam (eclipsed by Counter-Strike 2). There was a player low of 302,785 on February 13, but that's hardly a number to be sniffed at.
Looking at something like Starfield - which has lost 97% of players on Steam - Palworld is still looking pretty healthy. Still, there's a downward slant that will likely see Palworld stats continue to slip unless something changes. Good job that there are plenty of changes on the horizon.
PvP is the boost Palworld needs
Click to enlargeAlthough some originally thought Palworld was going to be something of a The Day Before scam thanks to Pocket Pair's previous game of Craftopia never leaving early access, the team seems committed to getting Palworld out as a fully functioning game. A well-planned Palworld roadmap is just what the survival game needs.
The Pocket Pair CEO admits it's something of a "miracle" that Palworld even exists, meaning it originally launched without a concrete plan of what comes next. Since then, we've seen promises of raid bosses, crossplay between Steam and Xbox, and the all-important PvP.
Unfortunately, there's no release date for Palworld's promised PvP, meaning we're left in something of a player slump right now. If we were Pocket Pair, we'd be beavering away on Palworld PvP in the hope of boosting player numbers. With any luck, the PvP launch day could see concurrent player numbers smash past Counter-Strike.
For now, Palworld is riding an uncertain wave of legal threats from The Pokemon Company, fixes to its cheating problem, and fluctuating player counts. Will this Pokeclone make it through the other side, or is Palworld destined to be 2024's next big casualty? Watch this space.
