Palworld Poll Names Sekhmet as Fans' Favorite Pal as Side by Side Update Looms

Palworld players have selected a new fan favorite, and Pocketpair has paired the community celebration with an early look at what is next for the creature-collecting survival game. In a global popularity poll, the feline-shaped Pal Sekhmet took the top spot with 49,637 votes, beating out fellow contenders Solenne and Chillet.

The poll results arrive alongside a tease for Palworld: Side by Side, an update planned for winter. Details remain deliberately limited, but the announcement image includes three silhouetted human characters. That single clue has already prompted extensive fan speculation, particularly because the most commonly suggested names line up with the leading human characters in the same rankings.

For a game built around gathering, breeding, battling, and assigning a large roster of Pals to work around the player's base, popularity polls can be more revealing than they initially appear. They show which designs and personalities have resonated with the community, while Pocketpair's past response to a similar poll suggests that highly placed human characters could potentially matter to the game's future updates as well.

Sekhmet Claims the Top Position

Sekhmet finished first in Pocketpair's worldwide vote with 49,637 player votes. The cat-like Pal's win gives it a clear lead over second-place Solenne, which received 37,425 votes. Chillet, one of the game's most recognizable early favorites, secured third place with 34,625 votes.

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The result is notable not only because of Sekhmet's victory, but because it reflects how broad Palworld's appeal can be across its roster. Players often become attached to Pals for very different reasons: combat capability, base usefulness, visual design, a memorable encounter, or simply the role a creature played during an early stretch of a save file. A popularity ranking naturally folds all of those experiences together.

Chillet's place near the top will likely be no surprise to many longtime players. Its distinctive appearance and strong community recognition have made it a frequent point of affection since the game's earlier period. Solenne's second-place finish, meanwhile, puts it firmly among the Pals that players are most eager to celebrate.

At the opposite end of the table, Verdash landed at the bottom with 1,479 votes. The result does not erase the grass-type Pal's fans, and its distinctive green, voluminous hairstyle remains one of the more immediately recognizable design choices in the roster. Still, the wide gap between the first and last positions underlines just how decisively Sekhmet captured the vote.

Side by Side Teaser Puts the Focus on Human Characters

While the Pal rankings supply the headline result, the teaser for the upcoming winter update may prove to be the bigger long-term talking point. Pocketpair has named the update Palworld: Side by Side and shown three human silhouettes, but it has not identified the figures or explained precisely what role they will play.

That ambiguity has given players plenty to examine. A leading community theory is that the silhouettes belong to Auri, Zoe, and Saya. The trio are especially plausible guesses because they were the highest-ranked characters in the poll's human-character standings.

All three already exist in Palworld as faction leaders or tower bosses, so they are not unknown additions being introduced from scratch. The question is whether Side by Side could change their relationship to the player. The update title itself has encouraged theories that players may be able to recruit, travel with, or otherwise cooperate more directly with these established characters.

There is an important reason fans are taking that possibility seriously. Following the previous year's poll, Pocketpair made Zoe available as a recruitable companion. That precedent does not confirm that Auri, Zoe, and Saya will all become companions in Side by Side, but it demonstrates that fan feedback and character poll results have influenced the game before.

For now, the silhouette image should be treated as a tease rather than confirmation. Pocketpair has not announced the identities of the three characters, nor has it detailed any recruitment system, questline, relationship mechanic, or gameplay feature connected to them. The theory is compelling, but the official reveal will need to clarify exactly what Side by Side adds.

An Update Built Around a Longstanding Request?

Comments from Pocketpair head of publishing and communications John "Bucky" Buckley offer additional context for why players are looking so closely at the winter update. During an interview at Gamescom in August, Buckley said the studio was working on something players had wanted for a long time.

"It's exciting for us at Pocketpair because we're doing something that people have wanted for a long time," Buckley said. "We kind of considered it for 1.0, but it would have just pushed the release back too far."

Buckley did not confirm that he was referring to Side by Side, so connecting those remarks directly to this teaser remains speculative. However, the timing and the nature of the tease have naturally led the community to wonder whether the anticipated feature involves greater interaction with the game's human cast.

He also emphasized that the planned addition was exciting without presenting it as a massive expansion. That distinction could be meaningful for players expecting a broad overhaul. Buckley described the work as something that would not require players to begin a new save in order to use it, suggesting the feature is meant to slot into existing Palworld progression rather than replace it.

"We're doing something that's really exciting, but it's not big," Buckley said. "We're going to start the marketing on this soon. It's not a huge thing. You don't have to restart your game to experience it."

That final point is particularly reassuring for players with established bases, carefully assembled Pal teams, and long-running worlds. Any major update can raise concerns about compatibility or the need to repeat early-game milestones. Buckley's comments indicate that the teased feature should be accessible within an ongoing game.

Why the Winter Timing Matters

Buckley also discussed the timing of Palworld's next update during the Gamescom conversation. He indicated that Pocketpair was intentionally staying away from a November launch window, alluding to the expected arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6 later in the year.

The logic is easy to understand. A release of that scale is expected to dominate player attention, social discussion, streaming, and the wider games market. For a continuing game like Palworld, choosing another period for an update can give its own announcement and new content more room to breathe.

Side by Side is currently only identified as a winter update, with no specific release date provided. Players should therefore avoid treating the tease as a promise of a particular month or platform rollout. What is known is that Pocketpair is beginning to position the update publicly, and that more marketing was expected to follow Buckley's earlier comments.

What Players Should Expect Next

Palworld's poll is, on its face, a simple celebration of the game's creatures and characters. Sekhmet now has the strongest possible community endorsement, Solenne and Chillet have similarly demonstrated major support, and even Verdash's last-place finish has become a point of conversation among players.

Yet the poll also has a practical dimension. The link between last year's rankings and Zoe becoming recruitable has made the latest human-character results feel potentially consequential. If Auri, Zoe, and Saya are indeed the three silhouetted figures, Side by Side could deliver a new way to engage with personalities players have already encountered as opponents and faction leaders.

There are still several unanswered questions. Are the silhouettes actually Auri, Zoe, and Saya? Would the characters become full companions, temporary allies, quest-givers, or something else entirely? Is the long-requested feature Buckley discussed related to the same update? Pocketpair has not yet supplied firm answers.

Until then, the strongest confirmed takeaway is a clear one: Sekhmet is Palworld's current popularity champion, with nearly 50,000 votes behind it. The winter update tease has ensured that the celebration will not stay focused on one Pal for long, as attention shifts toward the three shadowed figures and what it could mean to fight, explore, or build side by side with them.