Palworld 'Side by Side' Update Announced — Winter 2026 + Global Popularity Poll 2026 Results

By Palworld Gaming Team · Updated 23 October 2026 · Palworld 1.0

What is the Palworld "Side by Side" update?

"Palworld: Side by Side" is the official name of the next Palworld update, announced by Pocketpair on 20 October 2026 in a Steam announcement and a simultaneous post from the official @Palworld_EN account: "Our next update, 'Palworld: Side by Side,' is officially coming in Winter 2026!" It is Pocketpair's first named update beyond the 1.0 release line (the game is currently on v1.0.5), and it is planned to release on Mac, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, per Final Weapon's reporting of the announcement.

That is, honestly, about all we know so far. Pocketpair gave no exact date, no feature list and no confirmed price — HappyGamer summarised it as "a season, not a date." Winter is a wide window: it could mean December 2026 or as late as February 2027. Nothing in the announcement says the update costs extra, but nothing confirms it is free either, so treat that as an open question until Pocketpair says more. This guide will be updated the moment they do.

Who won the Palworld Global Popularity Poll 2026?

The announcement was paired with the results of the 2026 Global Popularity Poll, which ran through September and, Pocketpair says, drew more votes than last year's edition (no vote totals were shared). The official post puts Sekhmet on top of the Pal rankings "out of over 280 Pals".

Top 3 Pals:

• 1st — Sekhmet. The fan favourite of 2026. In the 1.0 game files, Sekhmet (Paldeck No. 140) runs 115 Attack / 110 HP / 100 Defence, rides at speed 900, and works Handiwork 6, Mining 3 and Transporting 2. It is a mid-tier battler that clearly won on charm rather than raw stats — it sits well outside our strongest Pals data ranking.
• 2nd — Solenne. A more practical fan favourite: 115 Attack / 110 HP / 115 Defence with Handiwork 8 — the highest Handiwork level in the game — plus Gathering 4 and Transporting 2, per the 1.0 game files. Solenne features in our best work suitability Pals breakdown as the ultimate crafting Pal.
• 3rd — Chillet. The game's most recognisable face takes third: 80 Attack / 90 HP / 80 Defence, ride speed 1,050, with Cooling 2 and Gathering 1. Chillet has been a poster Pal since Early Access, so its medal is the least surprising result on the list.

Top 3 characters: Zoe in first, Auri in second and Saya in third. Zoe's win is a neat story — she is the first tower boss most players meet (Zoe & Grizzbolt), and the tower bosses have been recruitable allies since 1.0. The full rankings and per-language breakdowns are on the official poll website.

When does the Side by Side update release?

Winter 2026 — that is the only date Pocketpair has given. If you are marking a calendar, a December 2026 reveal or release alongside the annual winter sales would be the conventional move, but Pocketpair has a history of vague windows that tighten up at the last minute (v1.0 itself was announced for 2026 broadly, then landed on 10 July 2026). The sensible move is to watch @Palworld_EN and the Palworld Steam news page, where the Side by Side announcement dropped on 20 October.

For context, the game has been ticking along on small patches since 1.0: v1.0.5 (15 September 2026) fixed texture resolution and map filters, and our v1.0.5 patch notes explain why it changed nothing about the breeding meta. Pocketpair also has a 1.1 update in development with no announced date — Side by Side may be the name for it, or a separate release; that has not been clarified.

What else is Pocketpair working on?

Side by Side is far from Pocketpair's only project. Alongside the announcement, Final Weapon recapped the studio's growing Palworld universe:

• Palworld Online — a free-to-play mobile MMO by Garena, released for iOS and Android in 2026, with a seamless open world, shared base building, co-op PvE and PvP.
• Palworld Mobile — Pocketpair's own mobile title.
• More Than Just Pals — the official Palworld dating simulator.
• The Bushiroad Palworld trading card game — the studio's card-game entry.

In other words, Palworld's post-1.0 strategy is clear: keep the main game growing with named updates like Side by Side while the franchise expands onto every other platform it can.

What should you do before Side by Side arrives?

With a winter release window, you have roughly two to four months to get ready — and a new update usually means new content worth meeting at full strength. The highest-value preparation, all covered in our guides:

• Finish your breeding projects. Our 1.0 breeding guide and the breeding calculator (all 44,850 combinations) will find the cheapest route to any endgame Pal before the meta potentially shifts.
• Condense your core team. At 48 copies for 4 stars, condensing is the cheapest it has ever been — ~20% stronger stats on your fighters for the grind.
• Stockpile Cake. Our Cake guide covers the four 1.0 cake types and ingredient farming, so your breeding farm is ready the day new content drops.
• Fix your breeding mistakes. Three Early Access recipes silently changed in 1.0 — our breeding mistakes guide lists them so you do not waste eggs on stale combinations.

And if you have not yet met the poll winners, all three are catchable or breedable in 1.0 — look up their entries in the Paldex.

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