Palworld's record-breaking launch contends with Baldur's Gate 3, as the survival hit exceeds 815,000 concurrent Steam players

gamesradar.com:

Palworld keeps reaching new heights since its early access launch yesterday (January 19), as it's now eyeing up Baldur's Gate 3 massive concurrent player peak.

The survival mega-hit with machinegun-wielding off-brand Pokémon is a sweeping success, as it sold two million copies in a single day and reached a concurrent player count of 200,000 in mere hours. That peak player count has already quadrupled over the past day and now sits at an estimated 815,000, according to Steam Database. 

It’s worth noting that those whopping numbers don't account for Pals logging in on Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, or the Epic Games Store - but the game's darker twist on the monster-taming subgenre is clearly drawing in crowds regardless.

【Incredible!】 The number of Steam users currently playing #Palworld has exceeded 730,000! ! ! The 10th highest all-time peak in Steam history! We can't control the momentum at all. Thank you so much everyone for playing Palworld! ! ! #Pocketpair pic.twitter.com/w3CH4pYkzsJanuary 20, 2024

"We can’t control the momentum at all," developer Pocketpair wrote in its social media announcement, alongside an image that shows Steam's all-time top ten concurrent player peaks. Palworld has already placed tenth on that very impressive chart, just behind last year's record-breaking Baldur’s Gate 3, which sits within arms reach at a peak of 875,000 players. 

Palworld’s gigantic numbers are sure to climb throughout the weekend, though, since its peak practically jumps up a few thousand every time you refresh the Steam Database estimates. 

With so many players lining up to trade human parts on the black market and catch all Pals, the servers were obviously strained and buckled multiple times over the last day or so. Pocketpair did announce on social media that connectivity issues should be resolved when hosting co-op games on Xbox and Steam. 

Meanwhile, the developer also had an “emergency meeting with Epic Games” to update the storefront’s backend, so connectivity