Former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata advocated a "blue ocean" strategy in marketing the Nintendo Wii. This is because "Pal World," a survival-craft Pokémon-like game, is selling better than hot cakes.

In just three days after its launch, "Palworld" became the fifth most played game in Steam history in terms of concurrent players, while other recent triple-A blockbusters like "The Hogwarts Legacy" and my favorites "Baldur's Gate 3" and "The Elden Ring" are far behind.

Furthermore, this is "only" an early access launch; many Steam games don't reach peak concurrent connections until the second or third weekend after release; whether Palworld can maintain this momentum remains to be seen.

On the sales front, developer/publisher Pocketpair is printing money. This morning, the game's official Twitter account revealed that "Palworld" has sold over 4 million copies. For reference, the cult favorite "NieR Automata" hit 7.5 million units last April, six years after its release, and "Phantom Liberty," an expansion to "Cyberpunk 2077," just surpassed 5 million units this month.

Despite all this success, our Early Access hands-on wasn't entirely convinced by the game; PC Gamer contributor Lincoln Carpenter found Survival Craft's gameplay more polished and interesting He felt that there were a few ideas, but the shocking sense of humor quickly became tiresome. Actually playing Pal World is like Bugs Bunny having to spend hours with someone who makes it his business to smoke pot."

Still, when it comes to full 3D open-world Pokémon, Pal World's main competition is the visibly battered Switch game. Palworld and last year's Cassette Beast show just how much people crave a good Pokelike game."