❘ Published: 2024-11-12T00:37:10

Palworld developer Pocketpair isn’t letting an ongoing lawsuit from Nintendo and Game Freak slow them down. The launch of the game on PS5 in Japan proves it.

It’s been a wild ride for survival/monster taming game and competitor Pokémon. World Pal. The indie hit had an explosive launch earlier this year and briefly became the second most played game of all time on Steam.

Of course, the game was not free from controversy and Pokemon the fans came out of the woods toI’m questionable creature designs similar to plagiarism. It took the famously litigious company Nintendo a little longer to respond than people expected, but now, Palworld developer Pocketpair and Japan’s largest publisher locked in legal battle.

Despite the current lawsuit filed against Pocketpair by Nintendo and Gamefreak, Palworld still scores points with players. The game recently topped the PS5 charts in Japan, beating local favorites.

Pocket pair

Palworld mowed down its competitors and became the most downloaded PS5 game in Japan.

Palworld shocked the world a second time when it was revealed that the game would finally launch on PlayStation 5 amid the legal battle surrounding it. For most of the world, Palworld dropped on the console on September 26, 2024.

Japan had to wait a little longer but PS5 players in the region finally got their hands on the game on October 4, 2024.

Thanks to an official summary from PlayStationwe have an idea of ​​how the game will perform on the platform. In the US and Canada, the game sits at a respectable 10th place, but in Japan, Palworld was the most downloaded game on PS5 for the month of October.

Claiming the top spot is respectable enough on its own, but it’s even more impressive when you consider its competitors. Palworld beat Metaphor: ReFantazio and Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, both of which were expected to perform incredibly well in Japan.

Fortunately for Pocketpair, they can celebrate this success and relax a little more about the Nintendo lawsuit.

Despite early speculation that they would be taken to the cleaners, Nintendo and Gamefreak are only suing for 10 million yen (around $66,000 / £50,000), which, thanks to Palworld’s success, should be fairly easy for PocketPair to afford.