Palworld officially leaves Early Access with version 1.0

1 September 2026 · 5 min read

GameMapa editorial · how we check facts
Checked: Claude (AI) — fact-checked against the Ukrainian original; not proofread by a native speaker

Pocketpair officially released full version Palworld 1.0 and ended Early Access on 10 July 2026 — the developers announced it in a dedicated post on the studio’s website, having shown an official launch trailer a day earlier.

How the 1.0 launch was announced: two posts instead of one

Pocketpair didn’t stop at a single announcement — it spread the reveal across two consecutive days.

First, on 9 July 2026, the studio published a separate piece on its website featuring the official launch trailer, titled “Palworld 1.0 Official Launch Trailer Unveiled!”. That was the first official signal that the full version of the game was close.

The next day, 10 July 2026, a second post arrived with a direct confirmation: Palworld 1.0 was out, and the Early Access period was officially over. According to Pocketpair, that post’s headline read: “Palworld 1.0 is OUT NOW!”.

This order — trailer first, release confirmation second — is a common approach for major launches: the studio builds anticipation a day before the actual release, then announces the release itself separately.

Key dates at a glance

As of 1 September 2026, the timeline of the 1.0 release looks like this:

Where the full changelog was published

The developers didn’t lay out a technical breakdown of everything that changed in version 1.0 directly in the announcement posts on Pocketpair’s website. Instead, the full list appeared in the official Palworld news feed on Steam, where a document titled “Palworld v1.0 - Official Release Changelog” was published. That document is the primary source for any detailed 1.0 build changes — if you want to verify a specific change yourself, look for that exact document in the game’s Steam news feed.

We covered the general principles of how Palworld updates work, and how a major release like 1.0 differs from a routine patch, in our Palworld updates guide.

What actually changed: 72 new pals and a higher level cap

The most concrete details about the contents of patch 1.0 came from Kotaku, in a piece from 11 July 2026. According to that review:

• 72 new pals were added to the game.
• The character level cap was raised — the cited Kotaku piece does not state the exact new level, only the fact that it was raised.
• The design of several existing pals was changed to make them look less like Pokémon-style creatures — this is the outlet’s own observation, not Pocketpair’s own wording.

An important caveat: this is not a direct quote from the developers’ official patch notes, but an independent observation from a third-party outlet. That’s why we present these details as “according to Kotaku” rather than as an officially confirmed figure from Pocketpair.

What wasn’t officially announced

We deliberately leave out anything not present in the available sources:

• The exact new value of the character level cap — Kotaku only confirmed that it was raised, without a specific number.
• The full list of changes from the “Palworld v1.0 - Official Release Changelog” document — Pocketpair’s own announcement posts don’t include such a detailed list, only the fact that it was published on Steam.
• The price of the game after leaving Early Access — this wasn’t officially announced.
• Any new platforms or system requirement changes alongside the 1.0 release — the available facts don’t mention this.
• The exact number of pal designs changed in Kotaku’s piece — the outlet confirmed the fact of design changes but didn’t give a number.

If these details become known from official sources in the future, we’ll update this article.

What this means for players

The formal end of Early Access means Palworld is now officially considered a full release, not a game in active development under Early Access status. If you’re just starting out, there’s a separate guide to your first steps in Palworld, which is still relevant for the full 1.0 version.

We covered the major changes brought by the 1.0 release itself, beyond the two details above, separately in our overview of what the big 1.0 update added. And the patch that followed the full release — 1.0.3, which came out later and dealt with balance and fixes — is covered in a separate news piece on the 1.0.3 update.

In short

Palworld officially left Early Access on 10 July 2026: the announcement was split across two days (trailer on 9 July, release confirmation on 10 July), the full technical changelog was published in the Steam news feed, and the first independent observations about the patch’s contents — 72 new pals and a higher level cap — came from Kotaku on 11 July 2026.