It shouldn’t feel inevitable that an Early Access survival game will pass another million copies sold within the space of a week but, in the case of Valheim, it just does now. The game has now sold 5 million copies in four weeks on sale.Coffee Stain added that it’s now been played for a combined 15,000 years, is the 39th best-reviewed game on Steam, and has been watched for 35 million hours on Steam.
Update 2/24/2021: The incredible rise of Valheim continues, with the game now having passed 4 million copies sold through Steam Early Access after just 21 days on sale. It follows the game becoming Steam’s 5th most-played game ever by peak player count, attracting over 500,000 concurrent players.
Coffee Stain Publishing added that the game is now Steam’s 57th best-reviewed game, and has been played for a combined total of 10,000 years in the time since launch. On Twitch, the game has been watched by 188,000 concurrent viewers ate its peak, with 28 million hours watched in total.
“I don’t think I have really had time to contemplate it,” said developer Iron Gate’s CEO, Richard Svensson. “I know that players like the game a lot, but at the same time I think that I can make something even better in the future. I’m looking forward to adding more content to the game, especially working on the remaining biomes. Our current roadmap only reaches the next biome and we hope to have it done by the end of the year, but it might very well take longer depending on how smooth the development will be. I really don’t want to stress the development, that never ends well.”
Update 2/19/2021: Coffee Stain Publishing and Iron Gate Studio have announced Valheim has hit more than three million copies sold during only 16 days on Steam Early Access. And its peak concurrent player count also surpassed its last record, with the game having reached over 390,000 concurrent players.
The developers recently revealed Valheim’s Early Access roadmap, and IGN’s Valheim Early Access review called it “definitely a traditional survival game at heart, which means the further in you get, the more you have to put up with some tedious grinding before you can get back to the good parts. But even at its early access launch, those good parts are already very good, especially when you get to take to the seas or test your skill against its imposing bosses.”
Update 02/15/2021: Developer Iron Gate has confirmed that, in just 13 days, Valheim has been purchased by over two million players.
Iron Gate announced the news on Steam, also confirming that the game reached a new peak concurrent player milestone of 360,000.
Update 02/10/2021: Valheim’s successful launch continues unabated, with the survival game passing 1 million copies sold in just 8 days.
The game has continued to sit at the top of Steam’s Top Seller list, and passed 160,000 concurrent players, making it the fourth most-played game on Steam at the time. Developer Iron Gate also says the game passed a peak of 127,000 viewers on Twitch, and has seen over 11,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.
With the game only in Early Access, there’s a long way still to go, and potentially more success to be had. Iron Gate has published a Roadmap, promising Hearth & Home Improvements, Saga-Worthy Seas & Even More Ships, a Voyage to the Mistlands, and more.
Iron Gate AB’s Viking survival game Valheim has taken over Steam and Twitch after launching into Early Access just last week.
Valheim drops players into a procedurally generated world inspired by Norse mythology where they must craft, build, sail and fight to survive, with PvE co-op available for up to 10 players. It’s only available on PC via Steam at present.
The game is currently sitting at the top of Steam’s Top Seller list (measured on total revenue, rather than number of sales), where it rose throughout last week, beating out games like Nioh 2 and Football Manager 2021. With an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, it’s clearly going down well with those who’ve bought it too, and the player stats only further confirm its popularity.
Recording over 130,000 concurrent players at its peak, Valheim is also quickly rising up the Steam player count rankings. At time of writing, the game is sitting comfortably in the Top 10 games on Steam, just below Rust and Rainbow Six: Siege, and currently has more players than some Steam stalwarts such as Rocket League, Path of Exile, Civilization VI and Warframe.
Over on Twitch, the game is also seeing a lot of mainstream success with streamers, appearing in the top categories. Esports Charts lists the game at around 31,000 average viewers since release, with a peak at 81,392 – you can likely expect that to keep growing at the current momentum.
For more on Valheim, check out our Valheim Wiki guide that covers plenty you need to know, including some tips and tricks for getting started.
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.Source