Amid intense controversy – that I’m sure
you’ve heard enough about by now – Palworld has emerged out of nowhere to become one of
the hottest new IPs on the market. But that was no accident. Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, used
a “not-so-secret” 3-part strategy to achieve this feat. I’m Belinda, gamer and marketer in the gaming
industry and I’ll unpack how Palworld’s strategy of delivering a simple promise made
gamers absolutely fall in love with this new franchise. Palworld is a standout success by almost every
metric. It’s the most talked-about game in the media
right now capturing the good, the bad, and the ugly. The ugly, aka the unconfirmed allegations
around AI use and Pokemon plagiarism, became so ugly that its creators even received death
threats from the most fervent – or shoud I say – Nintentoddlers. But this very ugliness has also been fueling
the game’s grand marketig narrative, so much so that Palworld’s metrics now outshine
any surrounding controversies. Metrics that skyrocketed. Over 3M copies in just 40h since release,
then 5M in 3 days, 6M in 4 days, 7M in 5 days, 8M in 6 days, and then…we don’t know. The sales updates on Palworld’s Twitter
account had to stop, as their community manager was facing severe harassment from haters. Tragic, but what we do know is that the total
players so far hit around 20M across Steam and Xbox. It also became the biggest 3rd Party Game
Pass Launch ever and even topped CS all-time peak of 2M players, a feat only PUGB matched
since 2018. It also sold faster than any first-party PS4
exclusive hit – Spider-Man [3.3 million copies], God of War [3.1 million], The Last
of Us 2 [4 million] – Palworld outpaced them all in just three days. No other game on Steam has touched these numbers
in six years. What’s interesting though is if you look
at the player demographics, we see that China is holidng a massive portion (36.4%) of Palworld’s
player base. The U.S. is not far behind followed by Germany,
France and Canada. And looking at Steam’s Global Traffic Map,
it’s China again that has the highest percentage of traffic (26.8%). China’s top favourite game genres range
from casual to action to shooters to moba – all genres that niceley come together
in Palworld. These stats say it all: They captured a very
diverse player base, outpaced industry giants, and broke records right at launch. Palworld's got a grip around the globe. But how did they pull it off? It boils down to their strategic use of the
marketing funnel, whether by chance or clever design. The marketing funnel applies to all consumer
products that guides the consumer journey from first glance to final buy. From **awareness**, to **interest**, to **consideration**
and all the way down to **conversion**, where the consumer becomes a buyer. But traditionally, that’s where the story
ends. The customer pays and is gone. A design flaw, because this model simply fails
to generate repeat sales. And here enters the Flywheel funnel. Same thing, but different. You drive **awareness**, you keep them **interested**,
and then, instead of **Converting** them, you **Delight** them. By delighting them, you nurture their post-purchase
experience, and they spin into your game’s biggest fans, fueling the next round of potential
customers. It organically feeds back into the awareness
stage. Creating non-stop buzz. Now with the funnel mapped out, let’s zoom
in on Palworld. They didn’t just hit each stage of the funnel
and ticked boxes; no, they mastered it and took the game from Awareness to Delight with
3 key ingredients that this video is building up to. So stick with me. **Awareness stage** It’s June 5th, 2021 and Pocketpair drops
their first Palworld trailer. It’s in this stage where the consumer catches
a first glimpse of th e game throuhg trailers, screenshots, articles, maybe a Steam shout-out. They had a head start, thanks to fans from
their previous games Craftopia and Overdungeon. But this trailer? A total game-changer. It starts all cute and cuddly with Pokemon-style
graphics collecting monsters. And then, bam! Those same critters are making guns, on an
assembly line. (Show tiktok clip now) A head-turner and shock factor that set the
internet ablaze. Most folks loved the wild mix, a mash-up of
utopia meets dystopia Others, like PETA, weren’t fans at all,
sparking debates about animal rights in gaming. Pocketpair explained that it’s just satire,
a jab at how we humans treat animals all differently. The trailer blew up nevertheless, and went
viral. And with this, Pocketpair layed down their
game promise: Pokemon with guns. With a dark twist. Easy to play. On PC and Xbox. In hindsight, a very simple pitch. Awareness stage, nailed. **Interest stage** So far, so internet-typical. After a year of silence, Pocketpair dropped
another trailer in early 2022; a trailer that featured more slavery, weaponry and madness
and is now set to private. But, everytime they showed a new Pal hunting
with AK47, they kept pushing their game promise, like the 2022 Future Game Show trailer. The game promise continued with enslaved pals,
weaponized pals, threatened pals, and people “still can’t believe it’s real”, as
“every new trailer just got crazier and things did start getting more real though
in June 2023, announcing Early Access for Steam, and a new gameplay trailer at the 2023
Tokyo Game Show. So Palworld was basically saying: “Hey,
we’ve got an open-world, monster-collecting, survival game with automation, guns and slavery. It caught gamers attention, and then their
fully invested interest. And just like that, the interest stage, nailed. **Consideration stage** End of 2023, Palworld has gotten so much interest,
it ranked 3rd on Steam’s Wishlist with fans circling in important dates, participating
in network tests with positive reviews, and celebrating World Animal Day with more in-game
charm. By now, the game promise crystallizes – it’s
vivid, bold, and tapping into adult nostalgia. It’s Pokemon, the most lucrative IP ever,
but all grown up. The gameplay’s sleek, the genres blend perfectly,
mixing creature collecting, RPG, survival – all in an open world with its own boundaries. Being in the top 10 on Steam’s wishlist
is a surefire win, unless it’s a total letdown (looking at you, The Day Before). Now the cycle kicks in. You’re the buzz, on Game Pass, and folks
are seriously intrigued. Consideration stage, nailed. **Conversion/Delight stage** This is where the magic happened. You see Palworld’s follower count climbed
steadily over the 2 years leading up to the release. No wild spikes, just solid, growing interest. A sign their game promise continuously hit
the mark. Then, around one week pre-launch, Pocketpair
sent early access keys to a mix of streamers on Youtube, Twitch and Douyu. Not just any streamers though. These was a carefully selected mix of Vtubers
belonging to the Vtuber agency Hololive, with a really strong presence in East Asia as well
as streamers playing mostly survival games like Rust and Gach games like Genshin Impact
and Honkai Star Rail. It was not the typical Pokemon-streamer. But above all, the timing was everything. Streamers got their hands on the game just
days before release. A tight, strategic window that kept hype fresh
and FOMO high. You'd watch your favorite streamer one day,
and by the next, you're in the game yourself. Quick, seamless, no early player edge — just
pure, equal-footing gameplay. And speaking of gameplay: In a previous video
I mentioned the importance of one key ingredient essential for a game’s long-term success:
Mental availability. Memories. Or in other words: Memability. How meme-friendly a game is factors into the
long-term success. This is game is literally built for 15-20-second
clips of bizarre behaviour, very Tiktok-able. Somewhat-edgy, and simple enough to be streamable. **Launch and Post-Launch stage** Launch day. The game wasn’t just played; it was lived. Streamed, Tiktok-ed, debated. The controversies? Fuel for fire. Alleged Ai use, nods to Pokemon – all it
did was stoke the buzz. From Twitter debates to Reddit defenses. It reminds us of Hogwarts Legacy’s vibe
when folks tried a boycott due to J.K. Rowling’s “transphobic” comments. Guess what? Hogwarts Legacy became one of the most played
games in 2023, selling 22M copies. Another game that heavily relied on existing
franchise btw. And Palworld? It became top 2 on Twitch on launch day with
400k peak viewership and 100k average viewers over the past seven days. **Timing** What’s crazy is that Palworld’s devs weren’t
just lucky with timing. They struck gold. The game released during the best possible
time ever especially in China: Shortly before Chinese New Year. One popular game in China is Honor of Kings,
and during Chinese New Year 2021, its streaming platform – Douyu – reported over 60 million
streams. **3-Key-Factors** Now the flywheel is definetely spinning. They mastered each stage of the funnel in
a way that continuously nurtured the relationship between developers and users. Quoting Pocketpair CEO, communicating with
users felt like “a giant student council or club activity.” And the not-so-secret recipe for this runaway
success can be distilled into three key factors: **#1Trend-Awareness:** Pocketpair was deliberatly
trend-chasing. They knew what gamers yearned for and delivered
just that. A Pokemon-like experience accessible to PC
and Xbox players, tapping into a deep well of nostalgia and an underserved audience. They've played the trend game before, with
Craftopia and AI: Art Impostor, and they're at it again with Never Grave: The Witch and
the Curse. And Palworld's low-PC requirements broadened
its reach. **#2Hybrid Gameplay:** As I mentioned in my
innovation video, it’s just a matter of time until smaller studios just start to mix
and mash game grenres to stand out of the crowd. And Palworld did just that. Merging shooter with survival and creature
collecting. ARK Survival meets BOTW meets Pokemon. On paper, it shouldn’t work. But it does. It clicks and creates a stream-friendly, meme-generating
powerhouse that keep the wheel spinning. **#3Visionary Instict:** Did I say it’s
important to deliever what players want? Yes, but it’s also important to surprise
them. It’s important to know how to surpass player
expectation and go beyond what gamers want. Palworld listend to gamers but also read between
the lines, delivering suprises that redefined desires. By offering a new twist on cherished concepts,
they crafted an experience that exceeded what players thought they wanted, proving that
true innovation often lies beyond the asked-for “faster horse”. You can't win by only giving people what they
want. In fact, Tears of Kingdom and Alan Wake werent
the result of player expectations but the result of the artist’s opinion. Portal, Doom, The Last of Us, all games driven
by the artists’ vision, not just player feedback. It’s a tight rope to walk on but the truth
always lies in the middle of strong opposing forces. So there you have it. Palworld's success isn't just by chance. It's a masterful play of knowing the market,
mixing the mediums, and daring to dream beyond the expected. They didn’t just deliver the game promise. They overdelivered it. And all this, while the devs at Pocketpair
were just a small gang of 4 novices, with a $10k starter budget, and even switched from
Unity to Unreal late into the dev process. And yet, this could end as fast as it began. The hard part kicks in now: Spending that
cash wisely and feeding it back into dev resources. The real challenge now is scaling its success
for the long-term. They created the flywheel effect but now it’s
down to transforming this into a legacy. It’s a space to observe. But worst case: If in a few weeks we see YT
videos on how “PW is dying” or “Why PW is failing”, even then, worst case, Palworld
will likely go down in history as one of the most whimsical yet most successful indie game
ever made. So we watch, we wait. I hope it’ll become a long-lasting franchise
for the years to come.
