Pocketpair’s controversial title, Palworld, is the most downloaded game on the PS Store in October…
The creators of Palworld are riding a rollercoaster of emotions at the moment. In early 2024, the survival title’s popularity skyrocketed, registering thousands of concurrent players. In September, Nintendo sued Pocketpair for infringing on “multiple Pokémon patents.” Not long after, in October, the game’s creators brought the experience to everyone in Japan’s PS5. To the surprise of many, this new version turned out to be the most downloaded game on the PS Store in Japan of the month.
We know this thanks to a recent post on the Japanese PlayStation Blog, which compiled a list of the most downloaded titles of October across PS5, PS4, PS VR2, PS VR, and free-to-play experiences (via GamesRadar+). This shows that Palworld was the most popular PS5 title on the PS Store in Japan.
It even beat out heavyweights like Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
The list changes drastically when we look at the US/Canada-centric records. According to this second ranking, Palworld is in 10th place on the new PS5 version, well behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, which lead the Top 20 list. In fact, the results for these two countries are very different from what we’ve seen in Japan before.
Nintendo reveals the patents it’s suing Palworld over
We still don’t have all the details about Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld. The details are only trickling out slowly. However, some key points have already been revealed. For example, the amount sought by the Big N and the patents it is suing over. The Kyoto-based company claims that Pocketpair infringed on three patents related to Pokémon IP, all of which relate to capturing NPCs, and is seeking 5 million yen in damages from The Pokémon Company and another 5 million yen for Nintendo, plus interest.
Source: PlayStation Blog (Japan), GamesRadar