Palworld is one of the most sensational open-world survival games on the market. It has been exploding in popularity since it was released by Pocket Pair on January 19, drawing in millions of players in a drastically short time. It’s a brilliant survival game with some innovative features, and its big selling point is that it boasts ‘Pals’ – small creatures that are exactly like Pokémon. Many people want to play this with their friends, so – is Palworld multiplayer? And if so, how do you play Palworld with friends?

In Palworld, players are left to explore a vast open world bursting at the seams with Pals to capture, level up, and put to work. It’s a bizarre game at heart, but that’s where part of the appeal comes from. It hasn’t become the most successful game in 2024 for no reason, of course. On Steam, Palworld is more popular than Counter-Strike! So, is Palworld multiplayer, and if it is, how do you set up a server?

Can You Play Palworld With Friends?

Palworld is multiplayer, allowing friends to explore the open-world environment and capture Pals together. There are some caveats, though. For instance, only four players can connect, and there’s only cross-connectivity between players on the same ‘platform’. That means that Steam players can’t connect with Xbox players, regardless of whether they’re on an Xbox console or a PC. If you want to play Palworld with friends, you’ll need to be on the same platform type.

As Palworld is in early access, there are a few bugs that the developer has yet to iron out. Unfortunately, most of these more troublesome bugs surface when you’re playing multiplayer in Palworld. However, if you can overlook these teething issues, there’s a solid Palworld multiplayer adventure just waiting to be experienced. If you want to explore a massive world with your friends, build bases together, and fight huge boss characters, then you’re in the right place.

How to Play Palworld with Friends

So, you want to sample a little Palworld multiplayer. Fortunately, it couldn’t be easier to connect with friends on this all-new survival game.

If you want to play Palworld multiplayer, the fastest way is to simply host a server with multiplayer enabled. This will allow you and three others to enjoy the same game together – all you’ll need to do is pass them the invite code for the server. If you’re able to purchase a dedicated server, you can host up to thirty-two players, but we’re not entirely sure why you’d need such a huge crowd of players.

There are several caveats to bear in mind when playing Palworld multiplayer modes, though:

Loot is bound to the map, which means you can’t ‘share’ loot – only one player can get it
Map progress is solo-based, so you can’t unfog the map or unlock fast travel points for someone else
If you want to build bases together, you’ll need to form a guild
In multiplayer, death automatically means you’ll drop all your Pals and gear, like in Minecraft’s survival mode

That’s all you need to know about Palworld multiplayer. Have fun out there!