Palworld is currently struggling with a lawsuit from Nintendo. But that doesn’t change the success of the game, especially in Japan.
What about Palworld? Since the release of Palworld in January 2024, it seemed for a long time as if Nintendo and the Pokémon Company would forego legal action for patent infringement.
However, on the night of September 19, 2024, that changed. A corresponding lawsuit was filed with the Tokyo District Court. This is about patent law, which could include game mechanics that Pokémon is known for.
Nintendo is demanding, among other things, compensation of 10 million yen. That’s the equivalent of around 61,000 euros. Palworld’s developers, Pocketpair, have already reacted to the announcement of the lawsuit – they want to hold on to Palworld.
The PS5 version of the game was released just a few days later, on September 25th, 2024. In Japan, console players had to wait a little longer, namely until October 4th. But the wait was worth it.
Nintendo files lawsuit against Palworld makers!
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Palworld climbs the winner’s podium
How does Palworld sell in Japan? Palworld is currently celebrating great success in the country where Pokémon comes from. The PS5 version quickly became a hit and is the most downloaded game in October, according to PlayStation.
In other countries such as the USA it is at least enough for 10th place, in Europe for 9th place (via blog.de.playstation.com)
For comparison: Other top titles such as Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which is also traditionally very popular in Japan, is displaced by Palworld and “only” ends up in second place. Followed by Metaphor: ReFantazio and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 places 3 and 4.
Palworld can count this as a great success and, with the console version, is following the Steam records that were already broken at the beginning of the year.
Currently, gamers worldwide don’t seem to be bothered by Nintendo’s lawsuit. If the company wins in court, Pocketpair could have to change its game or even take it off the market in order to no longer infringe the patents. Back in January we wanted to know: Could Nintendo successfully sue the Steam hit Palword? – We ask a lawyer