The phrase “dead game” is thrown around a lot these days, especially if a game isn’t doing too well in terms of player numbers. “Dead game” does not refer to a game that is actually dying, like Destiny 2, but games that are still very much alive, but dealing with slightly lower player counts. Even then, the game could still be healthy, but nowhere near its launch peak.
Pretty much every live service game you can name has been accused of being a “dead game”, ranging from Marvel Rivals, to Arc Raiders, to Marathon. Another game that was often the receiver of the “dead game” moniker was Palworld, which launched to a whopping 2 million peak player count, though that gradually fell to around 50,000 a few weeks ago.
However, ever since Palworld's official launch out of early access, its fortunes have turned, seeing almost one million players come flooding back upon the release of version 1.0. Even now, just over two and a half weeks after launch, Palworld is still managing a 24-hour peak player count of roughly half a million. It’s a huge success.
It’s so successful that Palworld's own developers couldn’t help but have a poke...
