‘Palworld’ sells 5million copies despite ‘Pokémon’ controversy

Pocketpair’s roleplaying game Palworld has sold five million copies in three days, despite increasing concern over potential AI use in the game.

The title launched in early access on January 19, and since then, it has shot up in Steam charts to the point it had more concurrent players than games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Call Of Duty.

Those users don’t include the number of players who are playing the game through the Xbox Game Pass release, and neither do the five million copies sold, meaning that the actual total number of people who have downloaded the game and played it could be much higher.

The conversation around Palworld, however, isn’t focused on sales. It’s instead focused on similarities that beasts in the game have to popular Pokemon characters, and the fact that the company openly released a title in early access last year named AI: Art Imposter which uses artificial intelligence in gameplay to generate images.

Several posts have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) showing similarities between Pokemon creatures and Palworld creatures, with previous comments from the CEO of Pocketpair discussing AI art, and specifically how to use AI art in order to create new Pokemon, leading people to wonder if the game used the technique at all.

There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not there’s any credibility behind these claims, however. Several people, such as Blade director Dinga Bakaba, noted that the actual gameplay loop of the game is much more similar to the survival title Ark: Survival Evolved than Pokemon.

Elsewhere in gaming, new evidence has suggested that the famed “King of Donkey Kong” Billy Mitchell might not have cheated to achieve high scores in the title.

Pocketpair’s roleplaying game Palworld has sold five million copies in three days, despite increasing concern over potential AI use in the game.

The title launched in early access on January 19, and since then, it has shot up in Steam charts to the point it had more concurrent players than games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Call Of Duty.

Those users don’t include the number of players who are playing the game through the Xbox Game Pass release, and neither do the five million copies sold, meaning that the actual total number of people who have downloaded the game and played it could be much higher.

The conversation around Palworld, however, isn’t focused on sales. It’s instead focused on similarities that beasts in the game have to popular Pokemon characters, and the fact that the company openly released a title in early access last year named AI: Art Imposter which uses artificial intelligence in gameplay to generate images.

Several posts have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) showing similarities between Pokemon creatures and Palworld creatures, with previous comments from the CEO of Pocketpair discussing AI art, and specifically how to use AI art in order to create new Pokemon, leading people to wonder if the game used the technique at all.

There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not there’s any credibility behind these claims, however. Several people, such as Blade director Dinga Bakaba, noted that the actual gameplay loop of the game is much more similar to the survival title Ark: Survival Evolved than Pokemon.

Elsewhere in gaming, new evidence has suggested that the famed “King of Donkey Kong” Billy Mitchell might not have cheated to achieve high scores in the title.