Palworld's liaison John Buckley has been vocal about the misconceptions surrounding Steam player numbers in the gaming industry.

In an interview at Gamescom 2026, Buckley shared his thoughts on why relying solely on Steam player numbers can lead to a distorted view of game success.

Concurrent vs Daily Active Users

Buckley argues that concurrent user numbers, like those provided He suggests that daily active users (DAU) would be a more accurate measure of a game's success.

I'm sure people will say Palworld's dropped under 100,000.

Pocketpair lead thought if Palworld 1.0 hit 200k concurrent players, "that'd be party time" – then it passed 900k on Steam alone .

People Dont Understand Details and Timeline

Growing infatuation with Steam player numbers as a means to gauge a game's success or popularity has ultimately misled a lot of people, worries Palworld liaison and Pocketpair publishing lead John Buckley.

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Because Steam is both the dominant platform for PC gaming and the only major platform that shares live, granular player data, Steam player counts, particularly concurrent users, are regularly used as a measuring stick, or just as often, a bludgeon. It could be Arc Raiders, Palworld, Peak, How to Fish , or Baldur's Gate 3; gamers will put you under the SteamDB or Steam Charts microscope.

Buckley's regularly pushed back on the "dead game" doomsaying chucked at Palworld and countless other games over the years, arguing that player falloff is normal and expected, and that numbers often described as dire are in fact quite healthy. In an interview at Gamescom 2026 , he describes the Steam number chatter as part of a larger misunderstanding.

"The numbers are so distorted with Palworld," he says. "I so vividly remember the 2.1 million concurrent to half a million concurrent [period].

Some of the most viral posts at that time were, 'This is the biggest game dropoff of all time.' And I was like, half a million people playing a game at any one moment, it makes me want to be sick, how staggering that is."

Though Palworld was biggest on PC, it wasn't only on PC, and this is one problem with Steam math. We can estimate trends based on a game's Steam community, and Steam player numbers do have genuine value and applications, but we can't get a reliable picture of a multiplatform release.

The factors driving spikes and dips in those numbers are also much more varied than whether a game is good or bad. Sales, update cadence, server downtime, time zones, and replayability can have a big impact.