Palworld has officially reached 40 million players worldwide ahead of its 1.0 launch on July 10. That’s more players than the original Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue, which sold around 31.4 million copies combined. The survival game first launched in Early Access in January 2024 and became a huge hit, selling 8 million copies in its first six days

Palworld’s developers are chads, they have decided not to increase the game’s price after the 1.0 release, Palworld will stay at $29.99 The studio said it thought about raising the price for the full release, but decided against it because of the amazing support from players. According to the developers, Palworld has become a much bigger success than they ever expected. As a thank you to the community, they’re keeping the game at its current price.

Palworld fans are waiting for the full 1.0 release, and the developers have given a clear update. Pocketpair’s John “Bucky” Buckley spoke to the community after a player complained about too many Discord notifications. Bucky said the next notification will not be about 1.0. “Well, the next notification won’t be about 1.0 either, I’m afraid! You should just assume that Palworld 1.0 isn’t going to be a sudden announcement on Discord in general, tbh… it’s a bit too big of a moment for something like that!” The game launched in Early Access in January 2024 and has had steady updates since then. Last year Pocketpair said version 1.0 will arrive in 2026 as their largest update, with new Pals, big improvements, and better endgame play.

Pocketpair says Palworld 1.0 will be the biggest update the game has received so far, with more new Pals and major changes spanning the entire game. Players will also finally be able to explore the World Tree region and uncover more of the story. According to John “Bucky” Buckley, version 1.0 is “bigger in scale than any update” the game has received, with “more new Pals than ever” added in a single release. Buckley also confirmed that Pokémon-style Pal evolutions are not planned. Instead, Pocketpair wants to focus on creating new creatures and systems, keeping each Pal as its own distinct species.