Palworld Is Finally Out of Early Access and the Numbers Are Still Insane
Palworld left early access on July 10, 2026. Two and a half years after it broke Steam, Pocketpair finally called it done. And somehow it's the second most played game on Steam right now, two weekends in a row. Behind Counter-Strike 2. Ahead of Dota 2. For a game that launched as a meme, that's a pretty good 1.0 week.
The Numbers Are Actually Wild
When Palworld hit early access in January 2024, it peaked at 2.1 million concurrent players on Steam. That puts it in a club with exactly two other games in Steam's entire history: PUBG and Black Myth: Wukong. Three games total have ever cleared 2 million concurrent players. Palworld is one of them.
For context, the 1 million club includes Counter-Strike 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Lost Ark, Dota 2, and Cyberpunk 2077. Palworld cleared all of them. A game about enslaving creatures in factories.
The full release brought people back. Sitting second on Steam right now, with Dota 2 knocked to third. That's not a fluke.
The Nintendo Thing Changed the Game. Literally.
This is the part worth knowing before you buy. In September 2024, Nintendo sued Pocketpair for patent infringement targeting three specific patents. Then in December 2024, Pocketpair quietly removed the ability to throw Pokéball-style Pal Spheres to summon your creatures.
That mechanic was the thing that made every early screenshot look legally questionable. It's gone now. Whether the lawsuit forced it or Pocketpair got ahead of it, I can't say for certain. But the timing is pretty obvious.
The game you're playing in July 2026 is not the same game that broke Steam in January 2024. The creature-catching still exists. Just differently. Worth knowing if you're going in expecting that exact early access feel.
So Who's This Actually For
Palworld is now on Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Full release, everything, done.
If you played in 2024 and dropped off, the question is whether 2.5 years of development on top of the base game is enough reason to return. The Steam numbers suggest a lot of people are betting yes.
If you never touched it, now's probably the time to find out. It's out of early access, it's on basically every platform, and it's still competing with the biggest games on Steam two years after its initial explosion. There's clearly something there beyond the meme.
Just go in knowing the throwing mechanic is gone. Everything else, judge for yourself.
Source: Eurogamer