Palworld Poll: Sekhmet Wins as Side by Side Update Is Teased

Palworld has a new popularity-poll champion, and the crown goes to Sekhmet. Pocketpair’s global player vote put the cat-shaped Pal comfortably in first place with 49,637 votes. Solenne followed with 37,425, while Chillet took third on 34,625. At the opposite end of the published rankings, Verdash received 1,479 votes—a rough result for a Pal whose green bouffant is apparently not enough to win the electorate.

The vote is more than a simple leaderboard for fans to turn into profile pictures and argument fuel. It arrived alongside a tease for Palworld: Side by Side, a winter update represented by three silhouetted human characters. Pocketpair has not identified those figures or detailed the update’s feature set. Still, the combination of a character poll and three deliberately obscured people has sent the community into full corkboard-and-red-string mode.

The strongest fan theory points to Auri, Zoe, and Saya: characters who were the leading picks in the poll’s character rankings. Each is already present in Palworld as a faction leader or tower boss. That makes the theory plausible, but it remains a theory. A silhouette is not a roadmap, and the update name does not confirm that any of the three will become playable or recruitable.

Sekhmet wins the Pal vote by a meaningful margin

Popularity polls do not measure combat strength, utility, rarity, or a Pal’s place in a competitive meta. They measure affection—sometimes driven by design, personality, usefulness, community memes, or simply the desire to support a favorite. In this case, Sekhmet’s first-place total was not a narrow squeak: it finished 12,212 votes ahead of Solenne.

Sekhmet: 49,637 votes
Solenne: 37,425 votes
Chillet: 34,625 votes
Verdash: 1,479 votes

Chillet’s third-place finish also shows how tightly clustered the top contenders were below Sekhmet. Solenne beat Chillet by 2,800 votes, whereas Sekhmet’s gap over Solenne was far larger. That makes Sekhmet the clear headline winner, while Solenne and Chillet form a close second-place battle in the final totals.

Verdash’s placement should be read with some caution beyond the basic fact of its 1,479-vote total. The available results establish the bottom ranking, but do not explain why players voted the way they did, how many choices each participant could make, or whether the list included every Pal. It is a popularity snapshot, not a verdict on whether Verdash is worth using.

Why Side by Side is creating companion speculation

The Side by Side tease matters because Pocketpair has precedent for reacting to player interest in specific human characters. Following the previous year’s poll, Zoe became a recruitable companion. That does not guarantee a repeat for Auri, Zoe, or Saya, but it gives players a concrete reason to look at the new silhouettes and character-ranking results together.

For newcomers, a tower boss is a major opponent tied to a tower encounter, while a faction leader is a notable character associated with one of the game’s groups. These roles place characters at significant points in a player’s journey. Turning such figures into companions would be a meaningful change in how players relate to them, shifting them from a challenge or authority figure into a potential ally.

That is the appeal behind the “team up with them” interpretation. It is not merely about recognizing familiar faces. Players are imagining an update that expands the social side of Palworld through existing human characters. The title Side by Side naturally encourages that reading, although names can be thematic rather than literal descriptions of mechanics.

For now, the careful version is straightforward: three human silhouettes have been shown, community discussion has suggested Auri, Zoe, and Saya, and Pocketpair has not confirmed their identities or roles. Players should avoid treating a popular prediction as a promised feature—especially where recruitability, quest content, or companion systems are concerned.

A winter update, but no confirmed feature breakdown

Side by Side is planned for winter, but the supplied information does not provide a release date, platform breakdown, patch notes, or a formal list of additions. That distinction is especially important because a separate earlier comment from Pocketpair’s head of publishing and communications, John “Bucky” Buckley, referred to an upcoming update in broad terms without confirming that it was Side by Side.

In comments made at Gamescom in August, Buckley said the next update involved something players had wanted for a long time. He characterized it as exciting but not especially large, and said players would not need to restart their game to access it. He also said the idea had been considered for version 1.0, but including it then would have delayed that release.

“We’re doing something that’s really exciting, but it’s not big,” Buckley said of the then-upcoming update, adding that players would not have to restart their game to experience it.

Those comments offer useful context, but they cannot be cleanly converted into a Side by Side feature list. Pocketpair has not linked the earlier remarks to the winter tease. The sensible takeaway is that there may be overlap, but there is no confirmation of it.

The “no restart” remark also has a practical meaning for returning players if it applies to the eventual update: it suggests existing save progress would remain usable rather than requiring a fresh character or world solely to access the content. Yet even that should be kept in its proper lane until Pocketpair directly associates the statement with Side by Side.

What the poll does—and does not—tell Pocketpair

Community polls are valuable feedback tools because they make fan enthusiasm visible in a simple, shareable form. Sekhmet’s win tells Pocketpair that the Pal has substantial support among the voters. The character rankings, meanwhile, appear to have put Auri, Zoe, and Saya in a similarly prominent position among human characters.

But a poll is not necessarily a production plan. Development decisions involve factors players cannot see: story structure, implementation work, voice or art requirements, balance, and whether a feature fits the intended scope of a patch. Even a very popular character may not suit a companion system, while a less visible character may be a better fit for a particular story beat or gameplay function.

That is why the Zoe precedent is best treated as evidence of possibility, not proof of a pattern that must recur. It demonstrates that Pocketpair has previously made a poll-linked character recruitable. It does not establish that all high-ranking figures will receive the same treatment—or that three silhouettes necessarily represent the three highest-ranked names.

What players can reasonably watch for next

The next useful update from Pocketpair will be specifics rather than another round of inference. Players looking forward to Side by Side should watch for confirmation in several areas:

Identity: whether the silhouettes are Auri, Zoe, Saya, or entirely different characters.
Role: whether those characters are companions, quest participants, bosses, cosmetic representations, or part of another system.
Scope: whether the winter update is a compact addition, a broader content patch, or something connected to the update Buckley discussed in August.
Timing: a precise release date or release window beyond winter.
Save compatibility: whether existing worlds can access the new material without starting over.

Until then, the poll results provide the firmest piece of news: Sekhmet is Palworld’s current fan favorite, with Solenne and Chillet close enough to make the podium lively. The Side by Side teaser is the tantalizing second half, but it remains exactly that—a teaser.

Palworld is also arriving in a crowded late-year conversation. Buckley had indicated that the timing of a forthcoming update was selected to avoid the November period, amid the attention surrounding GTA 6’s November release window. That comment explains the strategic logic behind avoiding a particularly noisy launch period, though it does not establish a release date for Side by Side.

For players returning to the Palpagos Islands, the immediate practical point is simple: do not delete, restart, or radically restructure a save based on silhouette theories. There is no need to act before the update’s actual requirements are known. Enjoy the poll drama, congratulate Sekhmet, offer Verdash a sympathetic nod, and wait for Pocketpair to turn shadows into named characters and confirmed features.