According to the Steam store page, Palworld needs at minimum Windows 10, a Core i5-9400F, 16 GB of memory and a GeForce GTX 1660, while the recommended tier lists Windows 11, a Core i5-12400 or Ryzen 5 5600X, 32 GB and a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT; both tiers show 40 GB of available space. An SSD is listed as required even at the minimum. This guide covers only the Windows PC (Steam) values checked on October 6, 2026, and if you also plan to capture footage while playing, see what PC specs game recording calls for.
Steam minimum vs recommended specs (checked October 6, 2026)
| Item | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 (64-Bit) | Windows 11 (64-Bit) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-9400F | Intel Core i5-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 32 GB RAM |
| Graphics | GeForce GTX 1660 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / Radeon RX 6700 XT |
| DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
| Network | Broadband Internet connection | Broadband Internet connection |
| Storage | 40 GB available space | 40 GB available space |
| Additional Notes | SSD Required - Performance may vary depending on the amount of active Pals. | SSD Required - Performance may vary depending on the amount of active Pals. |
Bottom line: even the minimum tier needs 40 GB and an SSD
Only four lines separate the two tiers: operating system (Windows 10 or 11), processor, memory (16 GB or 32 GB) and graphics card. Storage, DirectX 11, the broadband line and the SSD note are word-for-word the same, so a minimum-spec machine gets no discount on disk space. If your PC is borderline and you also want to record while playing, read recording games on a low-end PC for the order in which to cut the recording load.
How to check whether your PC fits
- 1Read the numbers on Steam itself — The reference is the System Requirements block on Palworld's Steam page. The table above was copied from it on October 6, 2026, so after any update glance at the store again to make sure nothing changed.
- 2Match your CPU, memory and graphics card by name — Open the system information screen in Windows Settings for the processor and installed memory, and look up the graphics card name in Task Manager's Performance tab or a similar screen. The listing names only a handful of models, so a part that is not in the table cannot be judged from it alone.
- 3Confirm the install drive is an SSD — Steam lists SSD Required under both tiers. Check that your Steam library folder sits on an SSD and that the drive has at least 40 GB free. How large the install becomes after patches is not stated in the official material checked, so no figure is given here.
- 4Allow for the active Pals caveat — The official note says performance may vary depending on the amount of active Pals. There are no official FPS or RAM-usage numbers to quote, so on a minimum-spec machine it is wiser to play for a while and watch how it behaves before you expand your base.
- 5Separate co-op from dedicated servers — The store description gives up to 4 players in online co-op and up to 32 with a dedicated server. Hardware requirements for running that server were not found in the official pages checked, so they are left out.
Before you hit install
- Your Windows is 64-bit and compared against Windows 10 (minimum) or Windows 11 (recommended).
- Your CPU has been compared with Core i5-9400F, or with Core i5-12400 and Ryzen 5 5600X for the recommended tier.
- You know whether memory reaches 16 GB, and how far it is from the recommended 32 GB.
- Your graphics card has been compared with the GTX 1660, or the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6700 XT.
- The target drive is an SSD with 40 GB or more free.
- Space for recorded videos is planned separately from the game's own install.
If you plan to record Palworld
As the Palworld game hub shows, DOR is a free Windows recording app that supports Palworld: once it detects the game it records the full session automatically and saves an mp4 to the in-app library. Palworld is not one of the games with automatic highlight clips, so the moments you want to keep are picked yourself with the library's trim tool. On an NVIDIA graphics card DOR uses NVENC hardware encoding by default and can capture game audio and your microphone together, which suits a base-building video with live commentary. Footage takes disk space on top of the 40 GB install, so decide the storage drive early, and for the encoder side read NVENC versus x264. Recording does not make up for a PC that misses the game's requirements.
Official sources and check date
The specs, storage figure, SSD note and player counts were all read on October 6, 2026 from the Palworld page on the Steam store. The listing shows no Early Access label, meaning the game is out of Early Access. For the date, Steam shows July 9, 2026 while Pocketpair's Palworld 1.0 announcement says July 10, and neither explains the gap, so no single date is asserted here.
