Internet Reacts To Palworld And Its Massive Success

Initially known as Pokemon with guns, Palworld has set the gaming world on fire by selling millions of copies in a matter of days and fueling internet discourse with AI art accusations. It's even led to Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba creating a fascinating thread on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the survival game, touching on its mechanics and lightning-rod aspects.

Bakaba, who was game director on Deathloop, notes upfront that Palworld isn't actually a Pokemon-like and feels more mechanically inspired by Rust and Ark: Survival Evolved. He adds, though, that the title does obviously have similarities to Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Fortnite, and more.

Meanwhile, Naughty Dog senior artist Del Walker posted on X that "my gut is telling me Palworld was made nefariously." Another game developer, Rami Ismail, took a more moderate viewpoint by stating: "I don't consider it a clone of Pokemon even remotely, but I super don't love how close some of the Pals are to Pokémon."

That's just the tip of the iceberg for the Palworld discourse, as well. Below is a small sample of social media posts about Palworld, touching on the game's massive success to accusations of asset theft.

Palworld has already sold over 5 million copies, even though it arrived on Xbox Game Pass this month as well. The survival game has also seen over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam alone. For more, learn about how multiplayer and cross-play works in Palworld.