Palworld is officially the second most played game on Steam right now.

Palworld finally came out of early access this week. There were so many changes that Pocketpair publishing director John Buckley couldn't fit the patch notes into one blog post.

It includes tons of additional features, including 72 new friends, a new late-game area, a complete rebalance, advanced weapons, a water base, and a variety of quality-of-life add-ons. 1.0 was a huge success for the studio, receiving positive reviews up to 94-96%, and the open survival sandbox was finally released. purpose You can now access the World Tree. But the most impressive thing is that the game is back on top after two and a half years.

This weekend, Palworld reached a 24-hour high with over 725,000 players, making it one of the most played games on Steam. And as of this writing, it's in second place on the charts, behind Valve's behemoth Counter-Strike 2.

Top 10 Most Played Steam Games Currently

game	Live simultaneous peak (12pm BST)
Counter Strike 2	939,242
Pal World	670,340
dota 2	621,606
PUBG	470,633
TBH: Taskbar Hero	344,790
Bongo Cat	169,209
Apex Legends	119,470
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth	117,283
delta force	106,572
rust	103,735

It's surprising that Palworld still dominates Steam after so many years. In 2024, the game was widely considered a viral flash in the pan, riding the tail of a bizarre 'Pokémon with guns' premise that many thought would lose its appeal after its novelty. Well, Pikachu with the AK is thin. But if the 1.0 release proves anything, it's that the game isn't going anywhere. Despite a lawsuit from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company that overhauled its summoning mechanic and removed some of its overt inspiration in recent updates, the game has an active community that keeps it firmly at the top of the charts.

It certainly helps that Pocketpair isn't raising the early access price and is actually running a 30% off sale to encourage new users to try out the game.

Pinsider Ignis is standing by the river and looking at the water of Falworld.

Palworld has been such a success for Pocketpair that its official trading card game launches on July 30th and has already sold more than 3.5 million packs. We recently came across the TCG at TheGamer through our collaboration with Bushiroad, and my colleague Quinton O'Connor wrote that it's a “real contender” in a space with “lots of fun to be had.” Rather than being just another card game's skin, it's incredibly faithful to Palworld's open-world survival sandbox. With a starting roster of five unique card types and 50 friends, players not only fight against each other, but also actively gather resources and build their base.

Between the already hugely successful TCG and the 1.0 release that received positive reviews and dominated the Steam charts, it's clear that Palworld will be around for years to come.