Half a year before Palworld topped 2 million concurrent players on Steam alone, one of its developers thought over 50,000 players was "unobtainable"

Palworld.

Just seven months before Palworld took over the world by so many metrics, a member of the Pocketpair team reckoned 50,000 players would be the most the survival hit would ever achieve.

In a tweet, Pocketpair's community manager, who goes by 'Bucky' online, reflected on their expectations for Palworld's launch in May 2023, before they could've possibly known the monumental success it would go on to achieve.

"In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark," Bucky said. "Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to reach into the millions."

Of course, despite being the biggest launch in Steam history, Palworld is still very much an Early Access game. "It has taken years to get to this point, and Palworld only really begins from here. Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals," Bucky added.

With Palworld quickly approaching the 1-month mark, it's interesting to look back at my own thoughts for launch.In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark. Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to… pic.twitter.com/1rZaV30QONFebruary 14, 2024

Bucky goes on to acknowledge that, as with virtually every game that's ever released - and particularly following such an unpredictably massive launch - Palworld's player base has ebbed and flowed in the weeks from release. That said, they assure players, "it is fine to take breaks from games," and, "you don't need to feel bad about that."

"If you're no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you'll come back for round 2," Bucky said.

With the first Palworld roadmap promising endgame raids, PvP, server transfers, better Pal AI, additional islands, and a whole lot more, there's plenty of reason for lapsed players to come back in the future if they found any enjoyment in the Early Access game.

One exceedingly industrious Palworld player used only the in-game tools to build Attack on Titan's iconic central city on an unbelievable (until you see it) scale.