After an early access period of two and a half years, Palworld 1.0 finally released last month, selling 2 million additional units on Steam and reaching nearly 20 million total units sold on PC.
Although it’s typical for early access titles to see a major jump following full release, Palworld sold an additional ~6M units after its early access launch month and before the 1.0 release.
Notably, it achieved this without leaning on deep discounts. Its price cuts were frequent but shallow, capped at 25% before 1.0. The main driver was its aggressive content pipeline: frequent, large updates that kept the game visible and gave players reasons to buy in.
These large-scale updates continually brought players back, as analyzed on page 21, enabling Pocketpair to sustain sales without resorting to steeper price cuts.
Note: Only Steam is analyzed on these slides as PlayStation version was released later and Xbox version is dominated by Game Pass.
Palworld had 5 major large-scale updates during its early access period alongside a crossplay update.
Frequency and the large scales of the updates has kept the game alive on its long early access period, contributing to its high unit sales between launch month and 1.0 launch as seen on the next page.
| Update | Expansion content |
|---|---|
| Bellanoir Apr 2024 |
The first raid boss, summoned at the player base from dungeon slabs. Also, the addition of first automation features: ore mining sites, a self-regulating incubator and training manuals. |
| Sakurajima Jun 2024 |
A new island and a level cap raise. A repeatable raid location gates a new resource, which unlocks the next weapon and armor tier. First PvP arenas. |
| Feybreak Dec 2024 |
A new island six times the size of the previous update’s, a level cap raise and optional permadeath. New research trees, idle expeditions and major changes to automation mechanics. |
| Crossplay Mar 2025 |
Linked PC, Xbox, PS5 and Mac into one player pool, with Pals transferable between worlds. |
| Tides of Terraria Jun 2025 |
A Terraria crossover, bringing a themed dungeon, creatures, weapons and a boss. The larger additions were native: fishing, a mission system, and a loyalty stat that strengthens each Pal through use. |
| Home Sweet Home Dec 2025 |
New boss raid arena. Significant expansion of building mechanics, a new paint mode and Steam Workshop mods. |
| Version 1.0 Jul 2026 |
Two new regions, an ending to the main story, 72 more Pals and cap 80, plus rebuilt combat and deep cuts to the grind. Detailed on the following page. |
Pocketpair ran frequent but shallow discounts during the early access period, with every price cut prior to the 1.0 launch capped at 25%.
On average, each update brought in 270K new sales. Feybreak update was the most successful, driven by its large map addition, while Home Sweet Home came second driven by its new building features.
Compared to previous updates, 1.0 not only just added new regions, items, and enemies, but also completely reworked and expanded existing game mechanics, making it more casual and less grindy for both newcomers and returning players, with accomplishing tasks such as raids, captures, automations taking less time with more rewards.
| Two new regions Sunreach, a set of sky islands reached through a portal in a Feybreak tower, and the World Tree, which players could see on the map but never enter for the whole of Early Access. Seven smaller islands came with them. |
Addition of an ending The main questline now finishes, behind a level 80 gate, at the World Tree. Missions and settlements were rewritten around it. |
| 72 new Pals 47 new species and 25 regional variants, taking the roster to 287 from a little over 100 at Early Access launch. |
Two endgame systems Awakening spends Radiant Gems from the World Tree to push a Pal past its normal stat cap. Mutation gives bred eggs a chance of higher base stats and a passive available nowhere else. |
| Rebuilt combat A dash replaced the dodge roll, with attacking and reloading now possible mid-dash. Over 200 partner skills were reworked, and tower boss fights were cut from ten minutes to five. |
Raids reworked Base defense became wave-based and scales to the level of the defending Pals. Defensive structures no longer consume ammunition, and an NPC will call off a raid for gold. |
| Less grind The capture bonus needs 5 captures rather than 12, condensation 48 Pals rather than 116, incubation was halved, and treasure chest gold was doubled to quadrupled. |
The glider returns as gear The Wing Pack is worn rather than carried in the party, so aerial travel no longer costs a combat slot. It also gates access to Sunreach. |
Palworld has kept a $29.99 SRP since launch, and Pocketpair left it untouched even at 1.0. Rather than raise the price, they leaned on discounting: a 30% cut that started two weeks before the 1.0 launch and ran until 12 days after.
That price cut lifted demand ahead of the release, and the launch landing mid-discount pushed momentum higher still. That momentum didn’t fade when the offer expired, with sales running even higher than during the discounted period, even one month after 1.0 launch.
Alongside the continued success of Palworld, Pocketpair is also expanding its IP through a new card game in partnership with Bushiroad, and two new upcoming mobile games by top publishers Krafton and Garena.
Phone | 415.674.4600
Email | Inquiries@IDGIntel.com
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