Palworld, aka that game everyone has spent the last two years referring to as "Pokémon with guns," is out on Friday, but streamers are already broadcasting it ahead of launch—and going off early Twitch numbers, it's a hit. Wednesday morning (Pacific time) Palworld had around 60,000 viewers on Twitch, and that figure has climbed steadily throughout the day. At the time of writing it's neck-and-neck with Fortnite, each with around 85,000 viewers.
Traffic is fairly well distributed across a healthy number of streamers, so Palworld's developers clearly haven't just paid for a few big name sponsors to make for a big launch. (Though it helps that Twitch's fourth-biggest star by followers, Spanish-Norwegian streamer Rubius, is currently broadcasting to some 21,500 people.)
Palworld seems set to be the viral hit its developers were clearly angling for with every trailer depicting your "Pals" being put to work in factories, armed with machine guns, or slaughtered for meat.
Streamers have begun discovering all the other strange things you can do in Palworld, including:
Capturing humans and selling them…
Using a fiery fox Pal as a flamethrower…
Shooting eggs out of a Pal's ass like a grenade launcher…
…and butchering any human or Pal you've trapped in a Palsphere.
Despite some clear jankiness here and there—Palworld will be launching into early access on Friday—the game seems to be running well for most streamers, and it's currently the fifth-most wishlisted game on Steam. Get ready for a lot more viral clips from hilariously and/or horribly treated Pals in the next couple weeks.
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