Controversial new 'Pokemon rip-off' Palworld becomes one of the biggest video games in the world

A controversial new survival game likened to Pokémon Go! has become one of the biggest video games in the world just three days after its release.

Created by Japanese company Pocketpair, Palworld was released on Friday (19 January) and has well and truly taken the world by storm.

The game allows players to take on the role of 'pal-tamers' and travel around a large map battling human enemies and creatures which are known as 'pals'.

As the 'pal-tamer' title suggests, these pals can be captured and recruited to fight alongside the player, or work at a base to help create items for the player to use in battle.

Described by many people online as 'Pokémon with guns', Palworld earned some interest before it was officially released, but blew expectation out of the water when it actually dropped online.

Within days, Palworld has become Steam's third-biggest game, passing both Dota 3 and Lost Ark as it amassed more than 1.5 million concurrent players.

Not only that, but Pocketpair announced that Palworld has sold five million copies in three days.

Pocketpair

In fact, the game proved so popular that its server experienced a number of crashes, leaving players struggling to log on.

Wesley Yin-Poole, UK News Editor for gaming website IGN, told BBC Newsbeat that while Pocketpair has a 'few games under its belt', it's never previously produced anything so 'explosively popular'.

For reference, he added: "The Last of Us Part Two sold four million copies in three days. Palworld has sold faster than the fastest-selling PlayStation exclusive of all time, the success is astronomical.

"It just goes to show that this sort of genre is immensely popular and, personally, I'm just surprised it's taken this long for someone to do something like this."

But although Palworld has caught people's attention, many have been unable to move past its similarities to Pokémon.

Pocketpair

"Please stop playing this Pokémon rip off," one X user posted following the game's release, while another wrote: "I will not play Palworld bc I am not a fan of games that try to blatantly rip off Pokemon and this 1 is especially bad."

Yin-Poole himself admitted it was 'impossible to get away' from the similarities, but pointed out: "While it has got monsters that are very similar to Pokémon, the way the game plays is very different.

"What's really impressive about it, is just how well it's taken ideas from other games and blended them together to create this really compelling mishmash of concepts.

"So I think that's more about what's happening here than simply just ripping off Pokémon."

While playing Palworld, players have been making Pocketpair aware of issues with the game which the company has assured it is now working on.