Microsoft says Palworld is the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever

Pocketpair’s early access hit, Palworld, has now been played by a total of 19 million players across Xbox and PC, it’s claimed.

In its latest sales update, the Japanese developer claimed that it’s now sold 12 million copies of the survival game on Steam.

In addition, the Game Pass version – which is available on both PC and Xbox – has been played by over 7 million players.

According to Microsoft, Palworld is the biggest third-party Game Pass launch to date. The Xbox version peaked at nearly 3 million daily active users, it said.

In a press release published on Wednesday, Microsoft claimed it’s working with Pocketpair to help provide support for Xbox versions of the game.

“We’re providing support to enable dedicated servers, offering engineering resources to help with GPU and memory optimisation, speeding up the process to make Palworld updates available for players, and working with the team to optimise the title for our platform,” it said.

Since launching into early access on PC and Xbox on Friday, Palworld has become a huge breakout success. However, the survival game’s success ignited discourse around perceived similarities between its character designs and those of the Pokémon games, with many accusing it of plagiarism.

Last week, The Pokémon Company broke its silence regarding Palworld, and said it was investigating if it infringes on its IP rights.

“We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game,” it said. “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.

“We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.”