Palworld is lying to you about their sales numbers.
This is a pretty self evident thing, if you've been paying attention. The game is coming out tomorrow and yet doesn't have a million views on Youtube, and yet the company has released a formal announcement claiming that they have forty million players.
What exactly is going on here?
The simple explanation is that Palworld is lying to you. If the game really had sold forty million units, that would put it on the same pedigree as something like Cyberpunk 2077. It would have outsold Zelda, Mario, and the best selling Pokemon generation. It would be the biggest launch of a new IP ever.
But it is NOT.
Pocket Pair is being deliberately misleading with their claims that the game "has forty million players." That does not equate to forty million sales. They are deliberately including anyone who has played the game for twenty minutes on Xbox Game Pass, and separate Playstation accounts playing the game on the same console. The idea that this game is more popular than Pokemon is laughable. And yet, it has been a commonly reoccurring claim since the controversy started. Even though we have seen several Pokemon games release since Palworld first entered early access, the narrative has sustained that POKEMON LOST, and that PALWORLD WON. No matter how silly it gets, that will be the narrative from Internet Grifters like ClownfishTV or Fritanga.
(By the way, Frit, great job encouraging people to flag down my channel. I'm going to hold that against you forever, so be prepared)
The reality is that Palworld's audience is ONLY interested in it because they think they can use it to stick it to Nintendo. Outside of the legal issues surrounding the game, you never really see anyone engaged with the game or the characters at all. It's become a bit of a meme among Pokemon fans just how performative some Palpals get about getting called out on not knowing the first thing about the lore of their game. (Fritanga eventually started pretending to care about the Pals themselves in order to grift, and believe me— he is the ONLY person who is doing this)
The issue as I see it is that Palworld has no real identity outside of being the Anti-Pokemon. Good luck finding anyone talking about the game who doesn't bring up Pokemon in some way shape or form. Palworld fans hate Pokemon MORE than they love their game. In fact, they don't truly care about the game at all. They are far more interested in performative theatrics in trying to gaslight people into thinking Pokemon is a failing brand, and that Palworld has eclipsed it in popularity and relevancy.
This is, however, not true. We are going to see, first hand, how poorly the Palworld TCG performs compared to its contemporaries. Not even the Pokemon TCG itself, but other less popular games like One Piece and Yu-Gi-Oh. We are going to see the Pokemon anime stay very relevant and very popular while the Palworld adaption crashes and burns (Assuming that even gets made) and we are going to see Pocket Pair received an unfavorable ruling in regards to the lawsuit against Nintendo and the Pokemon Company. Which, may I remind you, was a lawsuit that the community unilaterally insisted was never actually going to happen.
Outside of some perpetually online internet grifters, Palworld has no real audience at all. People do not enjoy the game, the characters, or the world in any genuine capacity. The core appeal of it was being a edgy Pokemon knock off, and fans vehemently defended the obvious plagiarism as “inspiration” while simultaneously accusing Pokemon of ripping of Dragon Quest. It was always, always, always a performative thing to downplay Pokemon.
I've long said that no matter what happens, Palworld as a game is doomed to complete obscurity. The game has had no real lasting impression on anyone. Virtually every pokemon fan has sided with Nintendo in this matter while the grifters oppose them to suit their purposes. And all attempts from terminally online weirdos to convince us that they somehow put 3000+ hours into an early access game fall on deaf ears when you realize that most other people experienced all the relevant content in a matter of hours.
To put it the most simple terms, outside of the obvious Pokemon plagiarism Palworld has no real identity. It is the Pokemon equivalent of Sonic the Hedgehog or Playstation. It is a brand whose core appeal revolves around NOT being something else, and as a result of that ends up not having any true identity or appeal of its own. Just like how Sonic fans will try and tell you that Sonic Racing Crossworlds is bigger and better than Mario Kart World, Palworld fans will try and convince you that Palworld is bigger than Pokemon. Even though their only source is a jpeg image on Twitter and a youtube video from Bucky assuring them that it is true.
The downfall of Palworld is not upon us- because it was never truly relevant in the first place. All that's going to happen when 1.0 finally releases is that we can no longer hold out hope that this game will be infinitely more interesting once it leaves early access. There will be one last burst of relevancy when the lawsuit is resolved- but regardless of how it goes Palworld will inevitably fall far behind Pokemon.
It simply never had a real shot.