Pokémon with guns? How a new video game is taking the world by storm

Palworld has become so popular its developers are struggling to keep the game functioning and online.

The game is played in a large open world, where players compete for resources and battle Pals. Credit: Pocketpair

Key Points

• The new video game Palworld launched last Friday and sold five million copies over three days.
• The game is played on a large open map, where players can capture creatures called 'Pals' and fight for resources.
• The game's launch has been marked by controversy after accusations of plagiarism of Pal designs became public.

In an astonishing debut, the makers of a new online game called Palworld say they sold five million copies in just three days, catapulting them to record-breaking status.

Created by Japanese developer Pocketpair, the game which has been dubbed "Pokémon with guns", launched on Friday in an "early access" mode – meaning the version available is not the final product.

It’s become so popular the company is having trouble keeping the game functioning, with servers crashing and players unable to join their friends online.

The game has also taken the internet by storm, with Palworld topping the trending charts on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit.

Palworld is a multiplayer "monster-collecting game with open-world survival elements", according to the game's description on X.

Players go around a map battling each other while seeking to capture the creatures known as 'Pals'. Players are called 'Pal-tamers'.

The point of the game is to collect Pals, who can fight along with players or be put to work at player's bases, helping to create supplies for use in the field.

"Palworld is home to over 100 unique Pals, each equipped with a diverse set of skills to enhance the player's adventure," the Pocketpair website reads. "Along your journey you will also encounter formidable boss Pals that pose a challenge even for the most seasoned Pal tamers."

Players can use a range of weapons from spears to rocket launchers and assault rifles in the game, and captured Pals become "powerful allies in combat" and key figures in constructing a home base in the online world.

In multi-player mode, players can pit their Pals against one another in battles, attack one another's bases, steal Pals and steal items.

At one point, the game reported 1.5 million concurrent players on video-game platform Steam, leading to the game developers having to call an emergency meeting to make sure the game could function with all that traffic.

However, Palworld has been hit with criticisms that the creature designs are a rip-off of Pokémon, and that gameplay is incredibly similar to other survival games such as Rust.

The game's popularity has caused servers to crash, leaving players unable to get online. Credit: Pocketworld

The CEO of Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, responded in Japanese gaming news website Automation, saying, "we make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies."

Mizobe also posted on X Monday, saying the game’s artists have been receiving online abuse and called for an end to the vitriol.

"Currently we are receiving slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets that appear to be death threats," the translated post reads.

Despite the controversy, the game remains one of the top-performing releases, with Wesley Yin-Poole, the UK news editor for gaming site IGN calling it "explosively popular."

"Palworld has sold faster than the fastest-selling Playstation exclusive of all time, the success is astronomical," he told the BBC.