Palworld update will add “the largest and harshest” island in its history

A major Palworld update will introduce a new island to the survival crafting game in December, and it’s six times the size of Sakurajima.

A new Palworld update is coming in December that will introduce its biggest island yet. Despite an ongoing legal dispute with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, Palworld maker Pocketpair is still hard at work bolstering one of 2024’s biggest games with new features. As we near a year since its early access launch, the survival crafting game reveals that its next region will be dramatically larger than the previous free update.

It’s been a busy couple of days for Palworld. Just yesterday, Pocketpair revealed that a Palworld x Terraria crossover is in the wings for 2025, and now we have news on a major upgrade that’s coming to the creature-collecting survival game before the year is out. “A major update will be released in December,” the studio announces. “Survive on the largest and most mysterious island in Palworld history.”

Pocketpair teases that the new update’s island “is about six times the size of Sakurajima, which was added in the last major update. Powerful tower bosses and many vicious new species of Pals lurk here. A large amount of new content will also be added.” It doesn’t give away the region’s name yet, however.

The Palworld Sakurajima update introduced the first add-on island, and earned the game’s player count a dramatic boost, as people returned for the additional features and the new cast of Palworld Pals. It didn’t quite reach the launch-week high, back when Palworld achieved the second-highest-ever player count peak on Steam (a record since topped by Black Myth: Wukong), but it certainly showed that the appetite for more of the survival game is very much there.

Palworld is 25% off on Steam until Wednesday December 4, so expect to pay $22.49 / £18.74 if you buy it before then. The new island will arrive in December, so this Steam sale might be your last chance to grab the game at a discount before the update lands.

If you’re eager to explore right now, try some of the best Palworld mods to keep you busy while you wait, or take a stroll across another of the best open-world games on PC.

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