Palworld Will Be Leaving Early Access In 2026

Alongside this news comes a video titled “Palworld 1.0, Pocketpair and The Future” that outlines what’s next for the game. Led by PocketPair’s Communication Director and Publishing Manager Bucky, the video starts with a brief reflection on the 20 months since the game’s release—which has seen five major updates, including a Terraria collab, and a major legal brush with Nintendo that forced game changes—before diving into where Palworld and Pocketpair are going next. Bucky states the game needs to undergo “a lot of cleanup” before exiting Early Access, so the company will be “a little quiet” for the rest of 2025. They also shared that the upcoming Winter update won’t be as large as the previous Feybreak update.

With that said, Bucky goes on to emphasize that version 1.0 will be a “major milestone” and has a significant amount of content planned. Sneak peeks at said content will come in the future, but a solid date wasn’t shared. As for Pocketpair as a company, Bucky reminds viewers that the organization launched Pocketpair Publishing in January of this year, a publishing arm that will focus solely on helping other developers with things like funding, marketing, and distribution. He ends the video by hinting at a few other projects that smaller teams are “tinkering away” with at Pocketpair. More information about these smaller ideas will come in the near future. 

Palworld has seen major success since its initial release in January 2024. While its promotional material and general look have had it compared to Pokémon, even earning it the moniker “Pokémon with guns,” the game has arguably carved out its own identity with its building, farming, and fighting gameplay that’s attracted millions of players. With a promise of fewer bugs and more content, it will be interesting to see how players react to Palworld 1.0 sometime in 2026.