Pocketpair’s creature-catching survival hit has officially left Early Access after passing 40 million players worldwide.
Palworld has officially launched version 1.0, marking a major milestone for one of gaming’s strangest breakout success stories.
Developer Pocketpair confirmed that Palworld 1.0 is now out, bringing the game out of Early Access after a journey filled with huge player numbers, major updates, Pokémon comparisons and legal pressure from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
The scale of Palworld’s success is hard to ignore. Pocketpair recently confirmed that the game has surpassed 40 million players worldwide, a huge achievement for any title, especially one that spent most of its life in Early Access.
Palworld first exploded because of its unusual mix of creature collecting, survival crafting, base building, weapons and open-world chaos. Some players dismissed it early as a novelty, while others found a surprisingly deep survival game beneath the viral headlines.
Of course, the game’s journey has not been quiet. Since launch, Palworld has regularly been compared to Pokémon because of its creature-catching setup. In September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo District Court, seeking an injunction and compensation for damages over alleged infringement of multiple patent rights.
Despite that pressure, Pocketpair has continued to support and expand the game. The full 1.0 release suggests Palworld was not simply a short-lived internet moment, but a game that found a major audience and managed to hold onto it.
The big question now is what comes next. Version 1.0 is usually seen as a finish line for Early Access games, but for Palworld it may be more of a new starting point.
WildStarGaming take: Palworld may always live under the shadow of Pokémon comparisons, but reaching 1.0 with more than 40 million players behind it is a serious achievement. Love it or hate it, Pocketpair has built something that clearly connected with millions of players.