Pocketpair Palworld 1.0 Release Date and Everything You Need to Know About

After two and a half years in Early Access, Palworld officially launched its 1.0 update on July 10, 2026, marking the game’s full exit from Early Access. Developer Pocketpair released the update simultaneously across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms, targeting a rollout around 12:30 PM JST — which translated to roughly 11:30 PM ET the evening of July 9 for players in the eastern United States, and around 5:30 AM CEST in Central Europe.

From Viral Breakout to Full Launch

Palworld first launched into Early Access on January 19, 2024, for Windows and Xbox, arriving with Xbox Game Pass support from day one. It became an instant phenomenon, recording over 2.1 million concurrent players on Steam by late January 2024 and selling 12 million copies within its first two weeks. The game’s premise — an open-world creature-collector where players can battle, capture, and put “Pals” to work on bases, in mines, and even in combat with firearms — quickly earned it the nickname “Pokémon with guns.”

The road to 1.0 wasn’t entirely smooth. The game expanded to PlayStation 5 in September 2024, added crossplay across all platforms in March 2025, and rolled out major content updates like the Sakurajima island expansion and the Feybreak Island update along the way. It also became the subject of a high-profile patent infringement lawsuit filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in September 2024, centered on Palworld’s creature-capturing mechanics. That legal dispute has continued in parallel with the game’s development, with a court-scheduled evidence presentation set for October 2026 and a ruling expected the following month.

Despite that backdrop, Pocketpair kept building. By the time 1.0 launched, Palworld had reportedly amassed more than 40 million players across all platforms.

What’s New in 1.0

Pocketpair described the 1.0 update as sprawling, with patch notes reportedly running to 27 pages covering new Pals, new regions, updated story content tied to the long-teased World Tree, and broad mechanical overhauls. The studio billed it as far more than a routine version bump — positioning it instead as the definitive, complete version of the game following years of iterative Early Access development.

The 1.0 launch also coincided with the release of an official Palworld trading card game, extending the franchise beyond the video game itself.

Should You Wipe Your Save?

One of the most common questions heading into launch was whether existing save data would carry over. Pocketpair confirmed that 1.0 would not force a save wipe — existing worlds, bases, and Pals would remain intact. That said, the studio openly recommended starting fresh anyway, given the scale of changes to core mechanics. As Pocketpair’s publishing team put it on social media, players didn’t need to wipe their data, but probably should, to experience the update as intended. Players running mods were given a firmer warning: old mod data needed to be fully deleted, not just disabled, to avoid conflicts with the new build.

Launch Reception

Palworld 1.0 opened strong. Within hours of release, the update was drawing enormous concurrent player counts on Steam, echoing (if not quite matching) the record-setting numbers the game posted at its original Early Access debut back in January 2024. Combined with console and Game Pass numbers, the 1.0 launch reaffirmed Palworld’s status as one of the more durable breakout hits of the past few years — a game that maintained a healthy daily player base of tens of thousands even during quieter stretches between major updates.

What’s Next

With 1.0 now out and the Nintendo litigation still working through the courts, Pocketpair’s next steps will likely hinge partly on how that legal dispute resolves. Reports ahead of the ruling suggested any financial penalty against Pocketpair, if the court sides with Nintendo, could be relatively modest rather than crippling. In the meantime, Pocketpair has signaled that post-1.0 support will continue, with previously teased features like PvP modes, guild raids, and cross-server Pal trading still on the roadmap.

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