Palworld MMO Revealed for Mobile, Drops Within Four Months

"Palworld is a widely recognised IP, and we see an opportunity to bring the essence of their PC title to mobile by encouraging players to connect and venture together," Garena president Terry Zhao wrote in the company's announcement. That's the pitch for Palworld Online, a mobile MMO developed and published by the Singapore-based company behind Free Fire and the mobile versions of Call of Duty and Delta Force. It's coming to iOS and Android before the end of 2026.

Less than five months remain in the year. There is no trailer. There are no screenshots. There isn't even a release date, just a window that amounts to "sometime before January." For a game being described as a large-scale MMO with an open world, cooperative base-building, PvP, PvE boss encounters, and an original story, that timeline is either wildly ambitious or a sign that "launch" might mean something closer to a soft beta than a finished product. Eurogamer flagged this possibility too, noting that the announcement references a "timeline for its launch" as something still to come.

Two Palworlds on One Phone

This is a separate project from Krafton's Palworld Mobile, which means the franchise will soon have two different mobile games running simultaneously. Pocketpair isn't developing either of them directly. CEO Takuro Mizobe's statement positions the studio as a licensor rather than a hands-on creator: "We are pleased to work with Garena on the licensed development of Palworld Online and look forward to seeing a new Palworld experience brought to players worldwide."

The announcement itself is light on specifics but heavy on promises. According to Garena's press release, Palworld Online "reimagines the depth, freedom, and scale of the original PC survival creature-collecting title for mobile," featuring a "seamless, interconnected open world" with Pal collecting, shared settlements, crafting systems, and roaming world bosses. Controls will include "optional one-tap" inputs designed for touchscreens. The game will also introduce "original story elements" and "new side stories created exclusively for this version," so it's not a straight port of the PC game.

The name itself wasn't a total surprise. As first spotted by Gematsu, a trademark filing for "Palworld Online" surfaced back in May, and fans immediately guessed it pointed toward an MMO. They were right about the format, though I doubt many predicted it would be mobile-only with no mention of PC or console versions.

Palworld's trajectory over the past two years has been remarkable. The game was in development for over six years before its early access launch in January 2024, where it immediately became one of Steam's biggest concurrent player records. It left early access with its 1.0 update last month on July 10th, and Pocketpair has been expanding the brand aggressively since, with a physical trading card game and now multiple mobile spinoffs.

I'm skeptical about the timeline here. Garena has real mobile publishing credentials, but announcing an MMO with zero visual assets and a sub-five-month launch window doesn't inspire confidence that this will arrive as a polished product. If it does land before December in a state that actually delivers on the open-world MMO pitch, Garena will have pulled off something impressive. Palworld Online launches on iOS and Android in 2026, with a more specific date expected soon.