Recently, manager John “Bucky” Buckley, head of communications and publishing at Pocket Pair, shared an unexpected discovery on social media. He opened the Steam250 rating and found that Palworld is the highest-rated PC release of 2026 on Valve's service.
Bucky thanked the community for their support:
Somehow… Palworld appears to be the highest-rated game of 2026 on Steam according to Steam250! To say that the reaction to version 1.0 was overwhelming is an understatement. Thank you to all the fans! The last few years have been a real adventure. And once again… thank you!
The release of Palworld 1.0 full version could not beat the peak online record at launch (2.1 million players), but still, the game managed to show a peak online of 961 thousand users — an unattainable result for many premium projects.
In second place in the Steam250 rating was another survival project — this year Valheim left early access. The top three was rounded out by the new installment of the horror franchise Resident Evil Requiem.