Palworld will leave Early Access in 2026 with a ‘massive update’ planned for version 1.0

Palworld will leave Early Access next year with a large update planned for its version 1.0 release, developer Pocketpair has announced.

In a video posted on the game’s official YouTube channel, communications director and publishing manager John ‘Bucky’ Buckley explained that content updates on the game will “be a little quiet” as Pocketpair shifts its focus to fixing “quirks and jank” in the lead up to the game’s official ‘proper’ release.

“Since Palworld‘s release we’ve shipped five major updates, each adding new mechanics and improving the game in various ways,” Buckley explained, citing the addition of raids in version 0.2, the new Sakurajima island in 0.3, Feybreak in 0.4, crossplay in 0.5 and the collaboration with Terraria in 0.6.

“Now we’ve reached a crossroads and need to decide what comes next. While we have a lot of ideas for where we want to take Palworld, we also need to start thinking about Palworld 1.0. Beyond just adding new content there’s a lot of clean-up that needs to be done before Palworld can exit Early Access.

“It’s not secret that Palworld has a lot of quirks and jank, and we want to take the time to properly address those before releasing the game. With that in mind, we plan to start clean-up this year. Our goal is to ultimately release Palworld next year, in 2026, and we think taking the time now to fix those problems will ultimately lead to a better game.”

Buckley explained that due to the focus on fixing bugs, the game’s Winter update – while it will still feature “a few surprises” – won’t be as big as its Feybreak update was.

“Development of Palworld is not scaling back,” he stressed. “Quite the opposite. Palworld 1.0 will be a major milestone for us and we have a truly massive amount of content planned for the 1.0 update. Rather than rushing it, we believe that laying the foundation now will lead to a better game in the end.”

Released last year via Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, Palworld was an immediate hit, attracting 25 million players in just its first month according to Pocketpair. The studio says that as of February 2025 the game has attracted over 32 million players.

Its similarities to the Pokémon series has led to legal pressure from Nintendo, however, and earlier this year Pocketpair confirmed that it had to make significant changes to the game due to its ongoing lawsuit from Nintendo.