Palworld has once again come close to topping Steam's weekend player charts, drawing in almost 1 million concurrent players and knocking Dota 2 down to third place. This is notable because the game, often dubbed "Pokémon with guns," officially left early access and launched in full on PC and consoles on 10th July, showing sustained popularity even after its initial 2024 hype cycle.

According to data from SteamDB, this marks the second consecutive weekend that Palworld has nearly claimed the top spot, sitting just behind Counter-Strike 2, and its resurgence is particularly striking given that other top contenders such as PUBG, Counter-Strike 2, Lost Ark and Dota 2 are free-to-play titles. Palworld previously peaked at 2.1 million concurrent players in early 2024, and it remains one of only three games ever to surpass 2 million concurrents on Steam, alongside PUBG and Black Myth: Wukong. The game has also faced ongoing legal scrutiny, with Nintendo suing developer Pocketpair in September 2024 over alleged patent infringement, prompting Pocketpair to remove the Pokéball-style "Pal Sphere" creature-summoning mechanic in a December update.