Palworld is unstoppable. Palworld is forever. Less than a week since the cute but also heavily armed Pokemon-style survival and crafting game hit Steam, it’s now officially more popular than Counter-Strike 2. The all-time player record for Valve’s shooter, previously known as CSGO, made it a mainstay at the near top of the Steam charts. Now, Palworld has taken the number two spot, becoming the second most-played game in Steam’s history, beaten only by the monumental record set by PUBG six years ago. Palworld, your power is boundless.
It’s not going to stop, so you should get the best Palworld Pals and learn the Palworld map. In the meantime, the Pokemon-esque survival game continues to climb the Steam chart, blowing past Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, Dota 2, Lost Ark, and now the hallowed Counter-Strike 2. Palworld now has a higher concurrent player record than any of those games, earning itself a very high place in official Steam history.
Counter-Strike 2’s all-time player record is a staggering 1,818,773. But Palworld, somehow, has done better. As of this writing, on Tuesday, January 23, the breakout Pocketpair hit has 1,864,421 concurrent players. Can it go higher? Can Palworld take the top spot? Possibly, but it still has a long way to go.
PUBG’s concurrent player record is 3,257,248, meaning Palworld is just over halfway towards becoming Steam’s number one. Given that it’s also available on Game Pass, it could be tricky to find roughly 1.6m new Steam players. On the contrary, a week ago you probably wouldn’t have expected Palworld to beat Counter-Strike 2. So who knows?
Elsewhere, Nintendo has reportedly started cracking down on mods that bring the likes of Pikachu to Palworld, and new material, including PvP, is now in the works.
Alternatively, we’ve managed to catch the best Palworld mods available right now, and you should also check out our comprehensive Palworld level up fast guide.
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