If you can’t get enough Palworld, try these great games next

11.02.2024 - 11:55 / digitaltrends.com / Tomas Franzese / Minecraft / Nintendo

Palworld took the world by storm following its early access launch on January 19. It peaked at over 2.1 million concurrent players on Steam, selling over 12 million copies on that platform alone and amassing at least 7 million more purchases via Xbox Game Pass. That means you’ve probably played it at this point, even if you aren’t playing many other video games right now. Thankfully, the melting pot — or derivative, depending on who you ask — design of Palworld makes it a gateway game to several other amazing titles.

From fellow captivating survival crafting titles to games in other genres that Palworld has pulled features and inspiration from, there’s a lot to try out if you’re looking to branch out and play some other games the next time you take a break from Palworld. In particular, we recommend playing the following five titles to get a better idea of where Palworld’s inspiration came from and where it might go in the future.

Minecraft

If Palworld has piqued your interest in survival crafting games, and you somehow have not tried out Minecraft, you need to play the genre’s king. Although it might not be the first survival crafting game, Minecraft is definitely the game that took the genre mainstream and cemented the foundational building blocks. Thanks to years of updates, Minecraft just feels intuitive to play at this point, yet it still features so much hidden depth within its basic mechanics. While it’s good to pay attention to the new hotness, sometimes you need to appreciate the classics.

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Minecraft is available across pretty much any game system or device you’d want to play it on.

Ark: Survival Ascended

If you’re looking for a survival crafting game that’s more directly similar to Palworld in mechanics and design, then you’ll want to check out Ark: Survvival Ascended. Palworld replicates many of its systems when it comes to both progression and taming creatures, albeit Ark does so with dinosaurs instead of cute Pals. Ark is a more hardcore game, so you’ll have an easier time getting into it after spending several hours with Palworld. Last year, it got a next-gen Unreal Engine 5 refresh titled Survival Ascended, so it looks even better than Palworld.

Ark: Survival Ascended is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.

Pokémon Legends Arceus

Although Palworld has a reputation as being Pokémon with guns, in practice, its gameplay is quite different from any existing Pokémon game. If I had to pick a Pokémon game that was most similar to Palworld, though, it’d be Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Released in 2022, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is