Palworld dev responds to player drop-off, says it’s ‘fine’ to take breaks

polygon.com:

Palworldhas only been out a month and it’s already solidified itself as a runaway success. The game has been setting records left and right, with eight million copies sold in less than six days, becoming the most-played third-party game on Xbox Game Pass, and climbing to the top of the Steam charts. Still, some people online have pointed out that the game has seen a drop-off in its active player base, and on Wednesday, a developer responded by voicing support for people who dropped the game.

A lead community manager at Palworld developer Pocketpair, who goes by “Bucky” online and in the game’s credits, said that it’s “fine” to take breaks from games, and that players don’t “need to feel bad” about it via X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

“Palworld, like many games before it, isn’t in a position to pump out massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis,” Bucky wrote. “New content will come, and it’s going to be awesome, but these things take a little bit of time. There are so many amazing games out there to play; you don’t need to feel guilty about hopping from game to game. If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you’re no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you’ll come back for round 2 when you’re ready.”

With Palworld quickly approaching the 1-month mark, it's interesting to look back at my own thoughts for launch.

In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark. Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to… pic.twitter.com/1rZaV30QON

Japanese indie studio Pocketpair released Palworldin early access on Jan. 19 to Windows PC and Xbox Games Pass. The game became a hit sensation on its first day of release with over 1 million copies sold. Interest continued to climb for roughly a week, but then players started to dip off. According to Steam Charts, Palworld has seen an estimated 25% drop in the game’s average number of players over the past 30 days. The dip