‘He was trying his best’—Palworld had a lone server guy trying to keep the game afloat during its 2 million player launch

While Palworld’s player count has calmed down in the time since its release, it’s still carved a cosy little niche for itself on Steam. SteamDB has it hovering between 20,000 and 50,000 players over the past few months, with a big bump to around 200,000 in December 2024 due to the release of a major update, Feybreak.

Still, that’s small change compared to the onslaught of players during its launch. Palworld rose into viral stardom to the tune of 2 million concurrent players in January 2024—which is huge, with other games, such as Helldivers 2, buckling under comparatively smaller weights. In a recent interview with Polygon, John ‘Bucky’ Buckley, the game’s community manager, paints a picture of panic at the studio.