A Palworld developer has criticized “lazy” reports on the game’s player numbers, while also asking players to remain patient for forthcoming updates.
Palworld, the open-world monster-taming game developed by Pocketpair, was released on January 19, 2024, for Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview and is available on the Xbox Game Pass from day one. Days after the release of the game, there were a million concurrent players.
Bucky, the community manager of Pocketpair for both Palworld and Craftopia, took to X about their thoughts on the game as it reaches its one-month mark this February 19. Back in May of 2023, they initially believed that Palworld would reach 50,000 players and didn’t expect it to reach the current player count it has at the moment.
They then addressed the ongoing narrative that Palworld is losing a percentage of its player base. Bucky reassured the players that it’s understandable to take breaks from games or hop to play another one. Whether players are still playing the game or not, they stated that the Palworld team loves them either way and hope they’ll jump back in when there’s new content.
With regards to updates, the community manager revealed that the team wasn’t able to release them every week. They stated that these things would take time but reassured that they would come.
Syntac, a social media influencer, also shared their thoughts on the matter. They replied: “No progression based game could ever hold those concurrent numbers for long. Even with the player drop-off, its still very much in the top 10 on steam. The real test will be when there is new content, how many players will return. My guess is a lot.”
Players on Reddit also shared their opinions on the Palworld situation and how the developers are handling it. A Reddit user shared that they think that the developers are awesome, which is supported as u/camposdav commended the continuous communication of the Pocketpair team with the community. They played the game for weeks but have since set it aside until new updates come.
Many players in the same Reddit post applauded the game developers. One player stated: “They honestly get it. Their goal was not to make a glorified cash shop designed to keep players showing up. They made a fun game that people wanted to play, and for not a crazy price. I never expected to like Palworld and I’m so glad it blew up.”
Another Reddit user expressed that they share the same thoughts as Bucky, finding the player count loss narrative of the articles “lazy.” They explained that Palworld is an early access game, which would explain the loss in player count as many would’ve already consumed the available content.
The game community recognized the potential of Palworld and commended its development team. The game still contains many game-breaking glitches and bugs, which is understandable as it’s still in early development. Pocketpair and the Palworld development team are continuously finding ways to provide updates and patches, as promised in the X post.