Palworld is currently facing a lawsuit from Nintendo. However, this does not affect the success of the game, especially in Japan.
How is Palworld doing? Since the release of Palworld in January 2024, it seemed for a long time that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company would refrain from legal action due to patent infringement.
However, this changed on the night of September 19, 2024. A corresponding lawsuit was filed at the Tokyo District Court. This relates to patent law, which could include gameplay mechanics for which Pokémon is known.
Nintendo is demanding, among other things, compensation of 10 million yen. This is approximately 61,000 euros. The developers of Palworld, Pocketpair, have already responded to the announcement of the lawsuit – they want to stick with Palworld.
Only a few days later, the PS5 version of the game was released on September 25, 2024. In Japan, console players had to wait a little longer, until October 4. But the wait was worth it.
Palworld reaches the winner’s podium
How is Palworld selling in Japan? Especially in the country where Pokémon originates, Palworld is currently celebrating great success. The PS5 version quickly became a hit and is according to PlayStation the most downloaded game in October.
In other countries like the USA, it at least reached the 10th place, and in Europe it reached 9th place (via blog.de.playstation.com)
By comparison: Other top titles like Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which is traditionally very popular in Japan, is being pushed down by Palworld and only lands in “2nd place”. Followed by Metaphor: ReFantazio and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 3rd and 4th places.
Palworld can claim this as a great success and is thus following the Steam records that were already broken at the beginning of the year.
Currently, players worldwide do not seem to be bothered by Nintendo’s lawsuit. If the company wins in court, it could be that Pocketpair has to change their game or even take it off the market to no longer infringe on patents. We wanted to know earlier this year: Could Nintendo successfully sue the Steam hit Palword? – We ask a lawyer
