Okay, so Palworld, right. It just dropped its 1.0 update, like, officially out of Early Access, on July 10, 2026, a Friday. This was after more than two years, actually two and a half years in Early Access, it started January 19, 2024. That’s a long time to be in Early Access, but it worked out for them.
The concurrent player numbers for the launch weekend, they were big. SteamDB reported a peak of 855,459 concurrent players. Other sources said 855,525 on July 12. Pocketpair, the developer, they announced over 850,000 concurrent players on Steam. That’s a lot of people jumping back in, or maybe for the first time, you know?
It’s not the all-time peak, though. The game hit 2.1 million concurrent players on Steam back in January 2024 during its Early Access explosion. That 2.1 million figure, it was the second-highest ever on Steam at that time, now it’s the third highest. Still, 855,000 is a huge number for a 1.0 launch. It shows there’s still a lot of interest in the game, even after the initial hype cycle.
The update itself, it’s massive. Like, Pocketpair’s head of publishing, John “Bucky” Buckley, he said the patch notes were 27 pages long. Some reports say over 10,000 words. That’s a lot of changes.
They opened up the World Tree, which is the main endgame region now and has a story focus. And there are new Sunreach Sky Islands, these floating areas with new Pals and resources. The game added 72 new Pals, including variants, bringing the total Pal roster to 287. That’s a significant content drop.
The level cap, it went up from 65 to 80. They added new mechanics like Awakening and Mutation for breeding, which lets you combine genes from Legendary Pals for stronger offspring. There’s new gear too, like the Wing Pack for personal flight, 13 new weapons, 44 accessories, and Ancient armor.
They overhauled the main story, combat got changes, base raids are now wave-based, the guild system is better, and there’s in-game voice chat. You can even build bases on water now with the Aquatic Construction Kit. That’s a big deal for base builders.
And get this, Pocketpair didn’t raise the price. It’s still $29.99. They said it’s a “small way of saying thank you” to the community. That’s a good move, especially with all the content.
Total players before 1.0, Palworld had over 40 million across all platforms by July 2026. That number includes Game Pass players, which is important to remember, not just direct sales. On Xbox, the 1.0 launch gave them a 400% player count boost. So it’s doing well on consoles too.
The Nintendo lawsuit, that’s still a thing, but it seems less impactful now. The initial lawsuit was for 5 million yen, about $30,000, and an injunction. Some analysts are calling it a “rounding error” now, which is pretty wild. Pocketpair also reiterated that Pokémon-style Pal evolutions are still off the table, probably because of that whole situation.
This Palworld 1.0 launch, it’s a huge moment for Pocketpair. They’ve taken a game that was already a phenomenon and poured a ton of new stuff into it, and players are responding. Will it hit 2.1 million concurrents again? Probably not, but it’s solidified its place as a major player in the survival crafting space. It’s not just a flash in the pan.