Palworld developer Pocketpair may be in the middle of a legal battle against Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, but that's not stopped its hit survival game from having a phenomenal first month on PS5.
Palworld made its debut on PS5 in a surprise launch on September 26 in 68 countries, although a short delay meant that it came to Japan slightly later on October 4. Clearly, a lot of PlayStation owners were eager to give the survival game a go because it's number one in October's PS5 download rankings in Japan and number 10 in the US and Canada, according to PlayStation's official roundup.
It had some fierce competition for those places, too. In Japan, it managed to beat both Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and Metaphor: ReFantazio – two enormous October releases, as well as the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Silent Hill 2 remake, and more. The ranking in the US and Canada is quite different, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on top and Undisputed in third, although Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is notably still in second place. Palworld also managed to beat Metaphor: ReFantazio a second time to squeeze its way into the top 10.
- "We hit this disgusting number that makes me feel sick": Palworld devs don't know why their survival game was so successful - "If we knew how to do it, we'd do it again"
- Palworld devs tried, but the "certain franchise plus guns" brand in the West "has stuck with us to this very day despite our best efforts to shake that off"
"Palworld didn't do too bad on PS5 in October it seems!" Palworld community manager and game designer Bucky writes on Twitter, sharing the charts. "Thank you PlayStation gamers!"
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in September, and it's now been revealed which exact patents the Palworld developer is alleged to have infringed upon. Pocketpair says it will "continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings."
