Since its first appearance in 2024, Palworld has entertained over 40 million players and become one of the most successful games of the last decade. Its collectible card game has sold over 3.5 million pre-order packs, as well.
So one has to wonder, what might be next for the now beloved franchise?
This feels familiar
I remember when Pokémon first emerged as a brand. Yes, I am that old. I was just a kid, but you literally could not go anywhere without seeing a Pikachu or one of the three starters on some colorful display. You couldn’t even eat a packet of potato chips without the risk of accidentally biting into a Pokémon Tazo (also known as Pogs, or Flippers).
The world has changed a lot, and in a way, Palworld is showing us what the emergence of Pokémon might have looked like, had it launched today. Obviously there’s a fair bit of beef between these franchises, but I like both, and I certainly think there’s enough room for both.
The first Pokémon games launched in 1996, followed shortly by a manga in the CoroCoro Comic in Japan. By October, still the same year, the official trading card game launched. Barely a year after the games, the anime came to light in April of 1997.
Obviously, things move a bit slower these days when it comes to creative media, but could we actually see an official Palworld anime soon?
The writing on the wall
So far, Pocketpair has said it has “no official plans” for an anime just yet, but then it also has an official partnership with Sony’s Aniplex, which is one of the most notable players in the anime market.
This happened back in 2024 already, and though it seems to indicate something is cooking behind the scenes, there’s nothing official.
There’s also no official manga just yet, but Palworld has only just reached 1.0 after two years in early access—a concept that was alien in 1996. So, perhaps now, Pocketpair will turn its attention to other forms of media?
It does have the card game now, having sold millions of pre-order packs, marking it as one of the most successful trading card games in a long time, apart from the big, usual players like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon TCG.
So far, all signs point towards Pocketpair and Palworld itself becoming a multimedia giant, despite the developers stating that they had no such intentions.
You have to admit, it feels like the writing is on the wall here. Until we receive official word from the company, we’ll just have to wait and see, however.
While we wait, they do have a selection of animated YouTube videos set in Palworld, dubbed “PalAnime,” in case you wanted to take a look. Maybe this is practise for something bigger?
Palworld seems unstoppable
Dubbed “Pokemon with guns,” Palworld first came to light in a viral trailer, after which it struggled through a turbulent development period, even switching mid-project from Unity to Unreal Engine 5.
It launched into early access and smashed records, selling 2-million copies in just 24 hours, but that wild success didn’t mark the end of its woes. It faced massive scrutiny online for having many similar designs to Pokémon, and even faced a scary Nintendo lawsuit.
Somehow, it survived all of that, and after reaching 1.0, it seems truly unstoppable. It’s only a matter of time at this point until we get more forms of media coming out of this world, and I’m here for it.
Would you be excited to see a Palworld anime? Let me know in the comments; always fun to hear from you!
