It looks like the first big new game launch in 2024 has arrived. Palworld, the open-world survival game from Japanese developer Pocket Pair, launched in early access on Steam today and is also available for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Xbox and PC Game Pass players can also get the game at no additional cost.
While there’s no info on how many Xbox players are accessing Palworld, the PC version on Steam has already hit the top of the charts in terms of sales. It also, as of the writing, has over 367,000 concurrent players on Steam, putting Palworld in fourth place on the Most Played list.
With that surge of players online, it’s not hard to understand that some gamers are dealing with issues with signing into Palworld’s servers. In a post on the game’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, developer Pocket Pair says that “due to the large amount of concurrent players, the servers have become unstable and you may be experiencing issues connecting to servers.” The developer says it is trying “to resolve this ASAP!”
Hello everyone,
We are blown away with the response to Palworld and we're doing our best to respond to your issues!
Currently, our server provider is reporting that due to the large amount of concurrent players, the servers have become unstable and you may be experiencing…
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 19, 2024
Pocket Pair says some players have been able to sign into the servers after trying to connect two or three times, or while “waiting after launching the game.”
Palworld has more than a passing resemblance to Pokémon, in that players can capture over 100 “Pals” in the game and train them to combat other “Pals”. However, Palworld is a bit more mature, as players can battle others in the world with modern day weapons. They can also train their “Pals” to build structures, make fire or electricity, and have them farm the land. Your player character can even eat Pals if they need to survive.