Palworld

Is Palworld Playable on Steam Deck?

Upon release, Palworld has been labeled as Playable on the Steam Deck. But you will need to remember that the game is currently available in Early Access so there is some server lag to be expected as the developers work on performance optimizations.
However, you can expect to play through the game with minimal issues as long as you configure the game well.

Some functionality is not accessible when using the default controller configuration, requiring use of the touchscreen or virtual keyboard, or a community configuration.

This game sometimes shows mouse, keyboard, or non-Steam Deck controller icons.

Entering some text requires manually invoking the on-screen keyboard.

Some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read.

The game requires manual configuration of graphics settings to perform well on Steam Deck.

How Does Palworld Play on Steam Deck?

So far, most people playing the game say Palworld runs fairly well on the Steam Deck. You are going to have to lower the graphic settings to something between Medium to Low due to the lack of performance optimizations.

Folks tend to be happy with the 30FPS – 40FPS numbers that they’re able to hit in the starter areas but that ends up dropping to the mid-20s (and even lower) in any busy area of the game. This is especially true when bringing up certain menus as well, showing that there are a lot of optimizations needed from the developers.

Beyond that, you are to expect there to be some crashes while playing the game. Remember, Palworld is in Early Access so we are to expect a number of game-breaking bugs to be present this early in development.

The last bit I want to mention is that there are text within the game that can be difficult to read. We see this often with games that are labeled Playable as they have not optimized the menus or even in-game text for devices with a small display (under 10 inches).