According to developer Iron Gate, Valheim moved an impressive one million units within just a week of its launch on Steam Early Access. Evidently, the co-op survival title has become quite the phenomenon, too, and with good reason. Unlike Rust and other survival games, Valheim emphasizes cooperative play above all else, meaning players need not worry about being griefed by fellow Vikings in PvP.
The setting itself is rather unique, as well. Players assume the role of battle-slain warriors who are ferried to the titular Valheim by Valkyries. Naturally, surviving for as long as possible is the name of the game. Teaming up with up to nine other players, Vikings are tasked with crafting, battling the most formidable creatures, and braving the harshest of elements. And, fortunately, Iron Gate is already hard at work on improving the overall experience. For example, a new patch went live yesterday that improved Valheim's stealth mechanics and reduced the damage dealt by the once overpowered deathsquitos.
A celebratory Steam post from Iron Gate revealed that Valheim managed to sell one million copies during the first week of its Early Access release. In addition, the studio confirmed the peak concurrent user total hit 160,000 players. Valheim is also doing exceptionally well on Twitch, accumulating more than 127,000 peak viewers during launch week alone. The team ended the post by telling fans the following: "We are super excited to continue working together throughout 2021, as we bring you tons of cool new content, improvements and… ways to die, through the early access and beyond."
Such meteoric success is no doubt an impressive feat. Word-of-mouth seems as though it's especially doing Valheim a favor, given the positive user reviews and the generally great reception. Akin to Fall Guys or Among Us before it, both of which counted among 2020's most popular games, the indie darling that is Valheim could be remembered as one of this year's biggest releases.
Valheim hit Steam Early Access earlier this month on February 2. As of writing, it's not yet clear how long the title will remain in early access or when Iron Gate may be ready to begin selling a full release. Whether or not Valheim might eventually make its way to consoles serves as yet another big question that presently has no concrete answer.
Valheim is available to purchase now on PC via Steam Early Access.
Source: Steam