Pocketpair lead says, “I’m sure our day’s coming,” expecting Palworld to face criticism if Steam players drop below 100,000

Palworld has remained one of Steam’s biggest success stories, but Pocketpair’s Head of Publishing and Communications, John “Bucky” Buckley, believes the game could eventually face the same criticism directed at other titles when its concurrent player numbers decline. Speaking with GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, Buckley said players and online communities often misunderstand what Steam’s public statistics actually represent.

Buckley specifically expects some people to react negatively if Palworld’s concurrent Steam player count eventually falls below 100,000. His comments come after the game saw a major resurgence following its 1.0 launch, once again attracting hundreds of thousands of players on Steam.

Palworld Could Be the Next Target of Steam Player Count Criticism

Buckley suggested that no successful game is safe from being judged by declining concurrent player numbers. He pointed to Marathon as an example before predicting that Palworld could eventually receive similar treatment.

“Poor Marathon and stuff are getting dragged through the mud with this right now, and I’m sure our day’s coming a few weeks from now,”

Buckley said.

“I’m sure people will say Palworld’s dropped under 100,000. And oh no, under 100,000. It’s coming.”

His argument is that a lower concurrent player count does not automatically mean that a game is failing or losing its audience. Palworld itself previously became a major example of this discussion after dropping from its enormous 2.1 million concurrent Steam peak to around 500,000 players.

According to Buckley, many people described that decline as one of the biggest player drop-offs ever, despite half a million people still playing the game at the same time.

“Half a million people playing a game at any one moment, it makes me want to be sick, how staggering that is,”

he said.

The Pocketpair executive explained that concurrent player numbers only show how many people are playing at one specific moment. They do not reveal how many different players logged into the game throughout an entire day.

Buckley gave the example of a game falling from 500,000 concurrent users to 400,000. He argued that this does not necessarily mean 100,000 players suddenly stopped playing, since players are constantly logging in and out. Instead, he believes daily active user figures could provide a more complete picture of a game’s audience.

“I think we need to start sharing DAU,”

Buckley said, referring to daily active users. He added that a game with 1,000 concurrent players could potentially have 20,000 different people playing during a single day.

Palworld’s situation is also complicated by its multiplatform availability. Steam numbers can offer valuable information about the game’s PC audience, but they do not represent every player on consoles. Buckley also noted that factors such as update schedules, server downtime, replayability, time zones, and sales can influence concurrent player numbers.

For now, Palworld remains well above the threshold Buckley expects people to criticize. Recent Steam data from SteamDB showed the game still attracting more than 150,000 concurrent players, while its 1.0 release earlier this year brought its Steam player count back to nearly one million. The bigger question, according to Buckley’s comments, is whether a future decline will be treated as a normal part of a game’s lifecycle or another reason for the internet to declare it “dead.”