I am the first to admit that I didn’t see Palworld coming. Oh, I knew about Palworld; we’d covered Palworld. We’d also been covering Craftopia, Pocketpair’s other survival MMO, for years and years. So when I say I didn’t see it coming, please understand that I don’t mean that our surprise was born of ignorance; what I mean is that based on the *crickets* we got out of covering Craftopia and Palworld all these years, I not only didn’t expect Palworld to blow up but expected it to bomb.
I don’t feel bad about being wrong, here; nobody else saw it coming either. And part of that is surely because 36% of the players are in China, driving those soaring play spikes. Oh, sure, there’s a lot more to it than that; it’s also the fact that a survival sandbox takes off every winter, and the fact that it’s funny and streamable, and the fact that Nintendo pointedly ignores the demand for full-scale multiplayer pokemon, leaving a vacuum PocketPair was ready to fill.
All of this is to say that MMO Fallout’s Connor is right: Predicting viral fads like this is almost impossible. But it sure is fun trying. What do you think the next viral MMO will look like?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
