More than two years after it stormed Steam and picked a very public fight with Nintendo, Palworld has finally shed the 'early access' tag. Pocketpair pushed Version 1.0 live on July 10, and rather than treating a full launch as an excuse to charge more, the studio kept the price exactly where it was and dropped a changelog so large it nearly broke Steam's character limit.
What Happened
Pocketpair confirmed the July 10 date at Summer Game Fest 2026 and shipped 1.0 simultaneously across Steam, the Microsoft Store, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Game Pass. There is still no Switch or Switch 2 release, which lines up with the studio's ongoing patent dispute with Nintendo. Existing saves carry over, though Pocketpair suggested a fresh start given how much has changed.
The headline gesture was the price. Palworld stays at $29.99, and Pocketpair framed that as a thank-you to a player base that has now passed 40 million. "After much thought, we have decided not to raise the price of Palworld following the 1.0 release," the studio wrote on social media, per reporting by PC Gamer. It is a rare bit of goodwill in a year of steadily creeping game prices.
The Details
The 1.0 patch notes run roughly 27 pages and more than 10,000 words, which The FPS Review described as essentially a new game. There are 72 new Pals (47 brand-new creatures plus 25 variants), bringing the roster to 287. Two new regions arrive: Sunreach, a cluster of floating sky islands, and the World Tree, the landmark that has been walled off since launch and now serves as the endgame zone with story missions Pocketpair pitches as the completion of the central narrative.
The level cap climbs from 65 to 80, and two new systems land alongside the regions: Awakening pushes maxed-out Pals further, while Mutation introduces rare, powerful breeding results. The Wing Pack, a worn glider that takes a gear slot instead of a Pal party slot, finally lets you fly without benching a combat creature. A first paid DLC, Dawn of the Palpagos, is already dated for July 30. Multiple outlets say the additions roughly double the map, though that 'double' is coverage estimate rather than an official Pocketpair figure.
Quietly, the update also reworked a handful of Pals that most blatantly resembled existing Pokemon. PC Gamer noted these redesigns went unmentioned in the changelog, and stressed the character designs were never the basis of Nintendo's lawsuit, which centres on capture-and-ride mechanic patents. Anyone connecting the redesigns to a settlement is speculating.
Why It Matters
The numbers came roaring back. Steam logged a new 24-hour peak of 853,393 players over launch weekend, according to Massively Overpowered, with reviews sitting at 'overwhelmingly positive.' That is well short of the game's all-time 2.1 million high, but it is the second-highest peak Palworld has ever posted, and a strong showing for a survival game two years past its viral moment.
Obviously, we had high expectations for 1.0 internally, but this is staggering. We really hope you are enjoying your time in Palworld again.
Our Take
Freezing the price and shipping this much content is genuinely the right way to leave early access, and it earns Pocketpair some goodwill after years of being treated as a punchline. Even so, the praise is not universal. Some players told PC Gamer that base-building fundamentals like pathfinding, work priorities, and clipping still feel rough, and that a state acceptable in early access is harder to swallow at 1.0. A monster changelog does not automatically mean the old bugs are gone. With a paid DLC already dated for July 30, the real test is whether Pocketpair keeps polishing the systems people actually live in, or moves straight on to selling the next thing.
