Video Games

Enshrouded cracks a million players in four days in the wake of Palworld’s success

It’s a good month for survival crafting games

Marco Wutz

Enshrouded cracks a million players in four days in the wake of Palworld’s success
Enshrouded cracks a million players in four days in the wake of Palworld’s success /

Launching a survival crafting game a week after the astounding release of Palworld seems like the worst idea ever, but it looks like the developers of Enshrouded managed to make it work: In just four days after being released, the game from German studio Keen Games has reached a million players. This might not equalize a million sold copies just yet, since the title is available via streaming service Nvidia GeForce Now as well as Steam, but still marks a success for the indie developer.

Enshrouded offers a more traditional take on survival crafting than Palworld with its addition of creature collection mechanics, being set in a medieval world of swords and sorcery. It features in-depth skill trees to customize characters and, just like Palworld, allows players to join their friends on co-op servers. Its visuals, too, are a little grittier than the colorful phenomenon’s style.

Enshrouded screenshot showing a warrior with a glowing sword fighting a giant armored warrior.
Enshrouded is not being swept away by Palworld's success / Keen Games

“In just four days, Enshrouded has attracted over a million players. We are completely blown away by its success and the overwhelmingly positive reception. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all our players,” the developer posted on social media.

“We're excited to let you know that this is just the beginning for Enshrouded. We are looking forward to continuing the development of the game with your support, aiming to make Enshrouded the best game it can be. Once again, a heartfelt thank you to everyone,” they continued.

Enshrouded went into Early Access on January 24, 2024, reaching an all-time peak of just over 160,000 concurrent players this past Sunday – a very respectable feat, even though it almost pales in comparison to Palworld’s most recent record of 2,101,535 players from a day prior.

One thing is certain: Fans of survival crafting games are feasting at the moment, getting access to two very fun and promising genre entries in a short period of time.

Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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