Palworld 'Side by Side' Update: What v1.1 Actually Is and What We Know

What Pocketpair Actually Announced

The announcement came in a single coordinated post on October 20, 2026, bundling two things: the results of the Palworld Global Popularity Poll 2026 and the name of the game's next update, "Side by Side," due in Winter 2026.

The poll ran from 1 to 28 September 2026, with voters able to select up to three Pals and three characters. Sekhmet topped the Pal bracket ahead of Solenne and Chillet. Zoe won the character bracket, ahead of Auri and Saya.

Beyond the name and the winter window, Pocketpair confirmed essentially nothing. No exact release date. No feature list. No new Pals. No platform specifics, the existing Palworld lineup covers Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Game Pass (per Pocketpair's patch notes and outlet listings; some outlets also list Mac), and nothing platform-specific has been announced for this update. The combined nature of the post, poll results plus update title, meant the update news arrived without the usual supporting detail of a dedicated reveal.

The Name That Read Like a Sequel

"Side by Side" is a subtitle, and subtitles historically signal either expansions or entirely new entries. Outlets and players split accordingly, with a wave of coverage treating the reveal as a spinoff or follow-up.

John "Bucky" Buckley, Pocketpair's Head of Publishing and Communications, addressed the misreading directly. "Palworld Side by Side is v1.1 by the way," he said, adding that "it seems quite a few people thought it was a new game announcement."

Buckley also pushed back on the scale framing that appeared in some coverage, clarifying that Side by Side is not a "massive update." That distinction matters, because the version number itself does not appear on Pocketpair's own announcement page, which names the update and its window but never states a numeric version. The "v1.1" label comes from Buckley, not the official post.

For context on what "first major update" means here: Palworld left Early Access with 1.0 on July 10, 2026 (JST), a release that added over 70 new Pals and expanded the Palworld map with new regions. Our Palworld 1.0 Patch Notes Breakdown covers the full scope of that launch. Pocketpair and outlets describe Side by Side as the first major update since 1.0, though 1.0.4 added two small sub-missions in September.

Confirmed, Rumoured and Unknown

The confirmed list is short: the update exists, it is called Side by Side, it is v1.1 according to Buckley, and it arrives in Winter 2026.

The rumoured list is longer: recruitable Tower bosses, the mystery "screaming at us" feature, and whatever the three silhouettes turn out to be.

The unknown list is longest of all: an exact date, a feature list, any new Pals, and platform specifics. The one genuine ambiguity worth flagging honestly is the version number itself, it comes from the studio's communications lead rather than the announcement page, a meaningful distinction for anyone tracking patch history.

The Three Silhouettes and the Recruitable-Boss Theory

The teaser art features three silhouetted figures. Fans and outlets have read them as Zoe, Auri and Saya, the Tower bosses, which has fuelled speculation that recruitable bosses are coming.

That reading is speculation, and it should be labelled as such. Outlets disagree on whether the silhouettes depict Pals or human characters, and Pocketpair has confirmed nothing about them. One outlet inferred from the "only three Pals" reading that the roster addition would be small; that inference is not supported by anything Pocketpair has said and should be treated with caution.

What the studio has said is more oblique. In a September 2026 interview, a Pocketpair lead indicated that 1.1 would include a feature "players have been screaming at us to do for a while," and that staff began work on the update immediately after 1.0 shipped. That tease has done most of the heavy lifting for community speculation, and it remains unconfirmed in specifics.

Where Palworld Stands Right Now

The current live build is v1.0.5, a small bug-fix patch released September 15, 2026. The more substantial changes arrived earlier: v1.0.3 on August 12 and v1.0.4 on September 7, the latter adding sub-missions, a fishing rework and roughly 80 fixes. Anyone running a dedicated server should note that 1.0.4 was a mixed balance and systems pass, not a skimmable fix list.

Pocketpair has also kept the game in front of players through cross-promotion, most recently a Palworld × Graveyard Keeper 2 Steam bundle launched on October 28, 2026 at 10% off.

Player numbers reflect a game past its launch spike but far from dormant. Tracking sites place Palworld around rank #59 on Steam with a 24-hour peak of roughly 49,000 players as of October 28, 2026 (an Oct 27 snapshot showed rank #54 and a 50,288 peak), about three months after 1.0. Snapshots vary slightly between trackers, so treat the exact figures as approximate.

What the Confusion Says About How Palworld Markets Now

Pocketpair's presentation choices invited sequel-level expectations. A named, subtitled update with teaser art is the visual language of a new game, and the studio's own publishing lead had to reset those expectations within days of the reveal.

That instinct to correct the record fits a studio that cultivates an unusually direct relationship with its audience. Whether the reveal was a misstep or a deliberate play for attention, the correction arrived fast and plainly.

For players, the practical takeaway is simple: watch for a date and a feature list. Until either arrives, Winter 2026 is the only firm marker on the board. Everything else, the silhouettes, the recruitable bosses, the long-teased feature, remains exactly what it is: a reason to keep paying attention.