Palworld has officially passed 40 million players worldwide, a milestone Pocketpair is celebrating just two days before the game exits Early Access this Friday, July 10, on PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X|S, and PC. To mark the occasion, the studio released a retrospective video hosted by Pocketpair’s Bucky, recapping everything that has changed across two and a half years of early access.
When Palworld hit Early Access on January 19, 2024, it shipped with 137 Pals, a level cap of 50, and a single archipelago to explore. The version players log into today counts 215 Pals and a level cap of 65, with a map that has grown island by island along the way.
The first year alone reshaped the game considerably, starting with the Raids update that introduced summonable boss fights against Bellanoir, along with training manuals and power fruits for more flexible Pal leveling. Summer 2024’s Sakurajima update added the game’s first new zone, the Moonflowers faction and its tower boss Saya, a PvP arena, and the oil rig stronghold, before Feybreak closed out the year with another large island, Pal Expeditions, a research tree, and the hardcore and randomizer modes.
The pace didn’t slow in 2025, with March’s version 0.5 finally delivering full crossplay across PC, PlayStation 5, and XBOX alongside the Global Pal Box, transmog, and photo mode. June’s Tides of Terraria marked the game’s first crossover, bringing Terraria’s Moon Lord as a raid boss plus fishing, salvaging, and Zoe as a recruitable companion, and winter’s Home Sweet Home update followed with the ULTRAKILL collaboration, a reworked building system, a dedicated raid arena, and Steam Workshop mod support.
As for what 1.0 actually contains, Pocketpair is calling it the studio’s biggest update ever, promising many new Pals, weapons, and items, new areas to explore, overhauls to many existing mechanics, and what the team is only teasing as a few surprises. The full reveal will probably come Friday.
We shared our first impressions back when Palworld first hit Early Access, and as a group, we’re really excited to revisit it for 1.0 and see how far things have come. It’ll have to wait until we’re done with Granblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok, though.
