2024’s first viral hit has been building for years: also Pokémon.
Like all overnight successes, Palworld’s sudden emergence as 2024’s first bona-fide viral hit has a much longer history. If you’re wondering why this slightly jank Pokémon-aping survival sim suddenly took over every feed going, in the process racing to 7 million sales and counting, then the answer has a ton of elements to it: though maybe the «Pokémon with guns» tagline is a good place to begin.
Palworld was first announced in 2021 with a frankly absurd trailer that at the time went viral: and it was this trailer that first led to the game being dubbed «Pokémon with guns.» So far, so internet-typical: the pitch was wild, everyone had a laugh at the trailer’s more ridiculous elements, and then we moved onto the next thing.
Palworld had done enough, however, to get on many radars and earn plenty of Steam wishlists. The Pokémon thing is perhaps worth pausing over. Are Palworld’s designs derivative and inferior? Sure. Do they infringe? That’s up to the courts, but it’s open enough that the game’s still on sale. And the subverting of Pokémon is and has been at the core of this game’s viral appeal since the start.
I mean, god love Pokémon, but Pokémon games are for children. IRL there’s a whole audience of adults who grew up on Pokémon and now have adult senses of humour that Game Freak is never going to satisfy. Pikachu may basically be your indentured slave animal in Pokémon, but Palworld leans into those systems and in doing so subverts the most immaculately maintained and valuable games brand in the world: GTA may sell like gangbusters, but it is truly nothing next to Pokémon.
What I’m saying is that players seem to actually like walking up to a cute animal, beating it into subservience, and rocking on to the next one.
