Is Palworld an MMO? – Answered

Poke... I mean, PalMMO?

Palworld Steam Deck
Image via Pocketpair

Many players have their eyes set on Palworld, the newest monster collector featuring cute critters with big guns. The game has an online mode featured in it, so does that mean that Palworld is the closest thing we’ll get to a Pokemon MMO for now?

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Is Palworld an MMORPG?

Despite having a good online good, Palworld is a Survival Open World game with monster-tamer elements. While up to 32 players can play simultaneously on the same server, this is not enough to classify it as an MMO on the likes of World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, or Final Fantasy XIV.

Palworld is much more like Ark: Survival Evolved than any of the other mentioned games. And if you played Ark, you know how it’s still far from what an MMO is like. While you can play with lots of friends, the main objective is to survive and build new constructions in your base, as well as crafting new weapons and catching more Pals throughout your journey.

While PvP is stated to be in production, it isn’t currently available during the Early Access period, so everyone can initially focus on just surviving and building new things like rocket launchers, castles, and anything else that the survival genre usually lets you make. The main difference is that you’ll have a few Pals by your side helping you with all of that!

You can also play Palworld solo in single-player mode or bring a smaller band of up to four players in the same world. And being these some of the most popular game modes that people usually go for in this genre, it’s hard to say that Palworld is an MMO in disguise. There are some traditional elements like Trading and Boss fights included, but the massive part isn’t really here.

You can play Palworld on the Xbox One, Series X|S, and PC through Steam or Xbox Game Pass. Just make sure you and your friends have the same version. Otherwise, playing together won’t be as easy.

About the Author

Patrick Souza

Patrick has been working for Prima since 2022 and joined as a Staff Writer in 2023. He's been interested in gaming journalism since college, and that was the path he took once he had his degree in hands. Diligently ignores his ever-growing backlog to keep raiding in Final Fantasy XIV, exploring in Genshin Impact or replaying some of his favorite RPGs from time to time. Loves tackling hard challenges in games, but his cats are still the hardest bosses he could ask for.