42% of British gamers who have heard of Palworld think its creatures are unoriginal

Palworld has whipped up quite the storm since the launch of its early access version on January 19. A newly conducted YouGov Surveys poll reveals that 28% of all British gamers – i.e., those who play for video games for at least one hour each week on any device – have heard of the game, including 3% of gamers have already played it.

While the game has received some critical acclaim as well as promising early acceptance – it is among Steam’s ten most played games currently – its character designs have received scrutiny. Specifically, some have argued that Palworld’s creatures resemble Pokémon too closely. Perhaps this partially explains why those who have played Pokémon and other Nintendo titles like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda in the past year have been more likely to hear of and even play Palworld. Overall, nearly half of them have heard about it (47%), including 8% who have played it.

But what do gamers feel about the distinctiveness of Palworld’s catchable creatures? Nearly a quarter of British gamers who have heard of Palworld say their creatures are very or somewhat original (23%). By contrast, nearly twice as many say the creatures are unoriginal (42%). Notably, gamers are five times as likely to say the creatures are very unoriginal than very original.

And the view that the creatures are unoriginal is more pronounced among those who play Pokémon or other major Nintendo games – The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Among this group, 52% say Palworld’s creatures are unoriginal and about half as many say they are original (26%).

But the perceived lack of distinctiveness of the characters isn’t necessarily tarnishing perceptions of the game on the whole. Nintendo gamers and gamers in general are both more likely to have a positive impression of Palworld than negative.

Gamers are twice as likely to say they have a positive impression of the game than those who say they have a negative impression (32% vs 16%). It’s a similar story among Nintendo gamers (34% vs 21%) although the level of negativity is slightly higher.

Importantly, even among gamers who feel Palworld designs are unoriginal, 13% have a positive view of the game, although the share of those who have a negative view rises to 34% within this cohort.

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