What do you think the second most popular game of all time on Steam is? Most people would probably guess something extremely well known, a COD game or something from a AAA studio that has hundreds of people working on it and hundreds of millions of dollars poured in. Recently the second-place game for most concurrent players, capping out at two million one hundred thousand concurrent players was Palworld, an indie game with a budget of 6 million.
Just a few months earlier, an even smaller game with a budget of practically 0 and made entirely by a single developer outsold the new Call of Duty, with a budget of somewhere around 1 billion dollars.
Despite ruling the gaming world for years, it seems that big studios are being dethroned by smaller teams.
Palworld’s release was absolutely record-breaking. Within days, it had sold millions of copies and was already a hit among buyers. The only game with a higher player count than it was PUBG, one of the most successful video games of all time. However, one thing is immediately clear: it is a Pokemon copy. You are a trainer, who adventures around the world catching fantasy creatures in little balls and then fighting other fantasy animals with them.
There have been accusations of stealing Pokemon’s ideas, and even their character models, but as of yet nothing has come from these clams. The Pokemon company released a statement saying it would investigate these claims, and if it found anything they would have no reason to keep it a secret, so it’s safe to assume Palworld is in the clear.
Pokemon copycats aren’t anything new, as the most profitable IP of all time, many have tried to ride that success, but what makes Palworld so great is that it does Pokemon BETTER than Pokemon.
The latest Pokemon game, (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet) is largely considered pretty bad, being the worst-rated Pokemon game. There have been 4 Pokemon games in the last 5 years, and Game Freak (the company that makes these games) refuses to do anything new.
The games feel repetitive to an unbearable extent, being the same gameplay, mechanics, and graphics -which are atrocious by the way- year after year. So when Palworld released, and introduced a Pokemon game that plays differently than any game before. People around the world ate it up.
But what about Lethal Company? The incredibly small-scale indie game released in October immediately became a favorite. The gameplay is fairly simple: you work for “The Company”, and your job is to visit abandoned buildings on various planets to retrieve valuable scrap, while also avoiding the deadly monsters within the facility
The most incredible thing about Lethal Company is that it was made entirely by a single developer. Zeekerss, who started their game-making career making Roblox games, made the game entirely on their own, and even after its success says that they plan to continue releasing updates as a solo team.
One of the reasons Lethal Company has sold so well is because its floor-level requirements to play. It only costs 10$ compared to the current industry standard of 60-70$, and due to its small size and low graphics quality, can run on just about any computer imaginable.
So instead of everyone getting out their top-of-the-line PCs and paying 70$ to play the new COD, anyone with a 5-year-old laptop and an extra 10$ can start playing Lethal Company with their friends, and experience an entirely unique game.
Lethal Company’s gameplay is very unique, offering something entirely new to players. While COD rereleases nearly yearly and is practically the same game repeatedly, Lethal Company introduces something entirely new, and while it already feels highly replayable. Zeekerss has stated they want to update the game enough to where it feels infinitely replayable or like you “Broke into the alien zoo and released all the animals.” It’s more fun than a lot of recently released games. Not to mention the incredibly easy modding. While modding a Nintendo game is illegal, Lethal company has a very active modding community, making the game even more player-friendly. It’s multiplayer-based, so it’s great for groups, and the horror elements mixed with that make it hilarious to play or watch.
Smaller companies with budgets a fraction of their mainstream competitors have always had a place in gaming. Recently, Helldivers 2 has taken the main stage, made by the indie studio Arrowhead Games. The game was only released in late January but has recently peaked at 450,000 concurrent players and seems to have the strength to be able to stick around for a while, so another win for the gaming underdogs.
