Context is key. The current CCU is not 'business as usual'. Palworld got a big boost because:

1. It got a big update just a few days ago
2. It's on sale because of the Steam Summer Sale
3. It's the week-end

Once these factors wear of, it will likely return to the 20-30k range where it has languished for the past several months.

Helldivers 2 was a surprise, but I wasn't expecting Palworld to sell THAT fast, without even an actual release.

Yup. It's peak was over 2 million. Right now, 70K. That is less than 3% of the peak. Even taking those numbers at face value, I think "get a lot of attention and then start to fizzle out quickly" was a pretty spot on description. 

But, as has already been pointed out, there was an update literally days ago. Using the number at this exact point in time is what would be called cherrypicking. It is worth noting that Helldivers had been ahead in average number of users every month since February, and is actually still ahead for the past 30 days, and for the month of June. I imagine Palworld will briefly reclaim the lead (in terms of current players), and lose it again by the end of the month. If not, it will be quite close. At that time, we can come back to this, and see whose post aged poorly. :)

33.		Palworld	27,192	55,159	2,101,867	+
34.		HELLDIVERS™ 2	26,451	31,144	458,709

Comments that did not age well. 

What is surprising to whom is super subjective. Yet I feel as though people don't give enough credit to pokemon. It is one of the best selling video game franchises out there. It is one the most valuable entertainment ip ever. And palworld famously is pokemon with guns. It looked so much better than any pokemon before. And it had a super original spin to it. It was poised for success.

Helldivers 1 sold very poorly. And Helldivers 2 was very similar in everything but perspective and production value. It looked generic in a see of shooters. Everytime it showed up at a conference I felt sorry for what felt like a game dead on arrival. I gave Helldivers 2 less of a chance than I give to Concord now.

Helldivers 2 was easily to more suprising success to me.

JWeinCom said: chakkra said: JWeinCom said: I feel Helldivers. It's easy to see why Palworld would get a lot of attention and then start to fizzle out quickly. Helldivers didn't really have a hook and has seemingly maintained its success, so I'll go with that. Comments that did not age well.. 33. Palworld 27,192 55,159 2,101,867 + 34. HELLDIVERS™ 2 26,451 31,144 458,709 Comments that did not age well.

Cool, I guess now we just need to wait for the next time Helldivers 2 makes it to the top 10 most played or get a 24h peak of over 100k. I imagine we won't have to wait for too long, since apparently this is something that is really easy to do and can be achievable by any game that has already "fizzled out", right? Maybe on its next update in the next few days?

Btw, this is how they are this morning.

Palworld. I don't see the absurdity of Helldivers selling big or why it's even in this, Palworld, Fall guys, Among us and the like surprise category. It's a niche genres yes but it's game funded by Sony in an existing franchise that leans itself on a cult sci-fi film and had a marketing budget as lean as it might have been. It was in a state of play twice if I recall. It's not like it popped out of the woodwork, they made a great game in a grouping of genres that can get success or death on day one and they succeeded like many before them.

chakkra said: JWeinCom said: 33. Palworld 27,192 55,159 2,101,867 + 34. HELLDIVERS™ 2 26,451 31,144 458,709 Comments that did not age well.  Cool, I guess now we just need to wait for the next time Helldivers 2 makes it to the top 10 most played or get a 24h peak of over 100k. I imagine we won't have to wait for too long, since apparently this is something that is really easy to do and can be achievable by any game that has already "fizzled out", right? Maybe on its next update in the next few days? Btw, this is how they are this morning.

Palworld has pretty much exactly the same amount of players as it did when I made my initial post. So, my post is as valid now as it was then. Aged like fine wine. Meanwhile, Palworld has about 40% of the users it did when you posted. So, that one aged like milk. 

For comparison's sake, Helldivers has about 72% of the users it did then, going by 24H peak. So, it's doing a much better job of holding onto players, which was my entire point. 

Here's where they are now. 

36.

Palworld

37,813

58,860

2,101,867

42.

HELLDIVERS™ 2

32,946

32,946

458,709

This is where they are as of right now. I imagine they'll fluctuate throughout the day, but the games by this point have a pretty similar player base overall. Which is pretty much what I said. Difference is that Palworld started with about 5 times as many users, so that is why it is fair to say that one fizzled out. 

It's not really relevant, but yeah, there's a pretty good chance that Helldivers will have over 100K users and temporarily break into the top 10 when the update comes out. The question is whether or not it will actually keep those players engaged. I imagine it will do so far better than Palworld did. 

JWeinCom said: chakkra said: Cool, I guess now we just need to wait for the next time Helldivers 2 makes it to the top 10 most played or get a 24h peak of over 100k. I imagine we won't have to wait for too long, since apparently this is something that is really easy to do and can be achievable by any game that has already "fizzled out", right? Maybe on its next update in the next few days? Btw, this is how they are this morning. Palworld has pretty much exactly the same amount of players as it did when I made my initial post. So, my post is as valid now as it was then. Aged like fine wine. Meanwhile, Palworld has about 40% of the users it did when you posted. So, that one aged like milk.  For comparison's sake, Helldivers has about 72% of the users it did then, going by 24H peak. So, it's doing a much better job of holding onto players, which was my entire point.  Here's where they are now.  36. Palworld 37,813 58,860 2,101,867 42. HELLDIVERS™ 2 32,946 32,946 458,709 This is where they are as of right now. I imagine they'll fluctuate throughout the day, but the games by this point have a pretty similar player base overall. Which is pretty much what I said. Difference is that Palworld started with about 5 times as many users, so that is why it is fair to say that one fizzled out.  It's not really relevant, but yeah, there's a pretty good chance that Helldivers will have over 100K users and temporarily break into the top 10 when the update comes out. The question is whether or not it will actually keep those players engaged. I imagine it will do so far better than Palworld did.

Hold up, so an almost double daily peak is a "pretty similar player base overall" now? Okay..

And I'm really looking forward to see your update the next time Helldivers 2 makes it to the top 10.

chakkra said: JWeinCom said: Palworld has pretty much exactly the same amount of players as it did when I made my initial post. So, my post is as valid now as it was then. Aged like fine wine. Meanwhile, Palworld has about 40% of the users it did when you posted. So, that one aged like milk.  For comparison's sake, Helldivers has about 72% of the users it did then, going by 24H peak. So, it's doing a much better job of holding onto players, which was my entire point.  Here's where they are now.  36. Palworld 37,813 58,860 2,101,867 42. HELLDIVERS™ 2 32,946 32,946 458,709 This is where they are as of right now. I imagine they'll fluctuate throughout the day, but the games by this point have a pretty similar player base overall. Which is pretty much what I said. Difference is that Palworld started with about 5 times as many users, so that is why it is fair to say that one fizzled out.  It's not really relevant, but yeah, there's a pretty good chance that Helldivers will have over 100K users and temporarily break into the top 10 when the update comes out. The question is whether or not it will actually keep those players engaged. I imagine it will do so far better than Palworld did.  Hold up, so an almost double daily peak is a "pretty similar player base overall" now? Okay.. And I'm really looking forward to see your update the next time Helldivers 2 makes it to the top 10.

I did not say the 24H peak was higher, I said they had a pretty similar player base overall. Which, if you look right now, is accurate. 

30.		Palworld	36,519	58,860	2,101,867	+
31.		No Man's Sky	36,385	51,574	212,613	+
32.		Football Manager 2024	33,368	68,445	89,478	+
33.		The Sims™ 4	32,597	43,350	96,328	+
34.		Governor of Poker 3	31,607	35,640	47,136	+
35.		HELLDIVERS™ 2	31,457	35,779	458,709

It was also accurate 2 hours ago when you posted. And 5 hours before that when I posted. You can look at the hourly breakdowns, and you'll see that throughout most of the day, the games do indeed have similar amount of players. For whatever reason, Palworld has a higher peak (maybe it's something to do with its reward system or it has a lot of users in one particular region), but I see no reason why we should cherrypick that piece of data to use as our measuring stick. In any evert, I definitely didn't say the 24H peak was higher, so do read more carefully. 

If 24H peak is your barometer for success, Palworld's 24H peak is about 1/3 of what it was. So, by your own logic, it's fizzling out pretty hard. The 24H peak is almost back down to where it was when I made my initial post, and is still dropping. Which again, is why my post aged very well and yours very poorly.

As for Helldivers 2 breaking into the top 10, I didn't say it would, so again, read more carefully. But, I do think it's pretty likely, and if it does, I will definitely update. But, that's really kind of tangential. I included it to show that Palworld's drop since your last post was exceptionally harsh, but Helldivers also lost a ton of players since I initially posted. I already acknowledged that it didn't maintain its popularity, so Palworld staying somewhat ahead doesn't do much for your argument. 

The long and short of it is that the numbers for Palworld are back down nearly to where they were when I initially posted, and all indications are they will continue falling. So, yeah, fizzled out quickly. That's the core of the matter. I get that you are trying to shift to tangential matters, rather than acknowledging you were wrong but *shurg*. That's the internet for ya.