The success of Palworld (Xbox, Steam) surprised not only numerous players and media outlets in January 2024 but also the developers themselves. Now the head of the development studio talks about the revenue and the future of the studio.
This is how successful Palworld is: The crazy mix of survival and Pokémon became a surprise hit on Steam and Xbox in January 2024. The title from Pocketpair, a rather small Japanese studio with currently 55 members, sold millions of copies and became one of the most played games on Steam.
- Palworld sold 1 million copies within the first 8 hours after its early access launch. In total, it reached 25 million players by February 2024 – since some are playing it for free through Xbox Game Pass, this does not directly correspond to paying customers.
- On Steam alone, Palworld sold approximately 15 million copies (via SteamDB). Due to regional pricing, exact revenue figures cannot be derived from this.
- According to Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, the development of Palworld cost 1 billion yen, roughly 6.1 million euros, but generated “dozens of billions of yen” in profit.
- Furthermore, Palworld, with a peak of 2.1 million concurrent players, ranks second among the most played Steam games of all time (via SteamDB).
In an interview with Bloomberg (paid article), the head stated that the revenue is actually “too large for a studio of our size” and discussed the future plans.
Palworld has just announced its first raid, which will bring a new Pal into the game.
What’s next for the Palworld studio? According to Mizobe, the sole owner of Pocketpair, the company is in negotiations to bring Palworld to other platforms outside of Steam and Game Pass. Additionally, they are “open” to partnership or acquisition offers.
However, the CEO emphasizes that they have not yet had discussions regarding a takeover with Microsoft. Microsoft announced shortly after the early access launch of Palworld that they wanted to support the developers with optimization and updates.
However, Mizobe apparently has no interest in giving up the indie status: “We are and will remain a small studio. I want to make several small games. Big-budget triple-A games are not for us.” Accordingly, they do not want to go on a big spending spree, hire more employees or move into fancier offices.
Moreover, Mizobe also has no plans to offer shares of Pocketpair on public markets.
What does this mean for Palworld? The impact of a partnership or even a takeover on Palworld will likely only show over time. Given the previous sales, Pocketpair should at least have more than enough money to continue developing Palworld.
Many players were initially concerned that the survival game could be abandoned by the developers and remain stuck in early access forever. Because with the announcement of Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse, which is reminiscent of the indie gem Hollow Knight, the studio wants to have four games simultaneously in early access.
So far, Pocketpair seems to be on the ball with Palworld – or rather the Palsphere. As announced in the roadmap from January 24, endgame content in the form of raid bosses is expected to come to the game in the near future. MeinMMO tells you what we know so far about the 1st raid.
