Palworld Pokemon Mods Not Allowed: Community Avoids Pokemon Mods

To say there’s a lot of backlash from some over Palworld is a huge understatement. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company haven’t made any outward claims against Pocketpair’s survival game, but they’re not about to let Palworld get any Pokemon mods. At least, not through normal venues.

Yesterday, YouTube content and mod creator teased a Pokemon mod for Palworld that replaced the Pals with canonical Pokemon, changed the player model to Ash Ketchum, and introduced Jesse from Team Rocket.

The full video on the mod was set to release today, presumably with a download link or indication of when the mod would be available. The creator, ToastedShoes, has a history of keeping mods behind a Patreon subscription. His plans have changed, as Nintendo filed a DMCA takedown on the preview video on X.

It’s impossible to notice the similarities between Palworld Pals and Pokemon. Some have wondered if the developers used AI to create their Pal designs. Pocketpair has vehemently denied those allegations.

Mods replacing Pals with Pokemon have, at large, been banned from most of Palworld‘s mod communities due to potential legal recourse from Nintendo. That doesn’t mean there aren’t mods being worked on, nor that they won’t slip through the cracks by other means. However, we won’t see Pokemon mods for Palworld on Nexus or any other reputable source for mods. No one’s willing to take the risk of drawing the attention of Nintendo’s lawyers.

Pokemon mods have always been a touchy subject. They skirt the line of copyright infringement. That’s why we don’t have many model swap mods for other games featuring Pokemon. Nintendo’s lawyers don’t seem to have much to stand on in terms of Palworld itself, but it can certainly prevent modders from adding Pokemon.

We probably won’t be seeing any Pokemon Palworld mods anytime soon. If we do, they won’t be found on mainstream websites, and they certainly won’t be monetized. Meanwhile, Palworld is doing amazingly in terms of sales and player numbers.

Pocketpair’s creature survival title has sold over five million copies since launch and reached over 1.8 million concurrent players on Steam just this morning. That’s the second-highest concurrently played game in the platform’s history, trailing far behind PUBG‘s highest player of 3.2 million.

Regardless of how you feel about the game, the cat is out of the bag. Palworld is here to stay. Check out some of our comprehensive guides. We have guides covering the best places to get ore, how to get milk, how to get eggs, and where to find Lovander. Whoever put that Pal in the game knew what they were doing.