Valheim is Steam’s hottest new PC game and has sold 3 million copies

The other day, I saw a game called Valheim at the top of Steam Early Access sales charts, with extremely positive reviews. Polygon he seemed to like the $ 20 Viking themed survival game and I thought his friends would too. I wasn’t ready to commit yet – I hesitated a little before trying. Do you know who bought it while I was deciding? A million other people.

On February 10, just eight days after launch, independent developer Iron Gate announced that Valheim it had already sold 1 million copies. Five days after that, Valheim reached 2 million sales. On Friday, February 19, two days after the original publication of this post, it reached 3 million sales.

Here are some other facts that you would like to know:

• It is now the second most played game in the all steam at one point, before each saved game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and is comfortably seated at number three now.
• It has already set a top ten record for simultaneous players on Steam with around 392,000 on Monday, beating Grand Theft Auto V out of that top 10 chart.
• On Friday, it ranked ninth with 410,000 players, pulling Postcard go down a step.
• He topped Steam’s bestseller list during Valve’s Steam Lunar New Year sale – despite not having any discounts.

How PC Gamer points, Valheimthe trajectory of is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

The closest parallel is perhaps PlayerUnknown’s battlegrounds – which also left Steam Early Access, sold a large number of copies during Steam sales (also not for sale), set a record for the Steam game with the largest number of simultaneous players (3.2 million) that still exists today , and kicked off the entire Battle Royale genre game that spawned today Fifteen days, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and more. But even PUBG it took months to reach the kind of number that Valheim has done it now, and that was with a game that defines the genre, full of action, nail rodent, friendly to streamer that makes the watch deliciously tense.

Valheimin comparison, it is slow and methodical. It is part of an established genre of survival games where you search and harvest, cut and dig, hunt and skin and then build better tools to do everything more efficiently continuously. Only here, you are also a tough Viking who can (eventually) build forts and ships, you are hunting gods for sport and you are exploring a gigantic map full of idyllic landscapes, charming music, a touch of mystery experienced and some enemies that step on me convincingly enough that I receive a slight Dark Souls vibe out of it. Oh, and when you cut trees, they fall and hit other things (like you) causing massive damage! It will never grow old.

Screenshot of Sean Hollister / The Verge

As Cass Marshall in Polygon points out, it’s also incredibly accessible and easy to learn – I convinced myself that I didn’t like survival games due to their typically rigid mechanics, but in Valheim everything seems to make sense without thinking too much. I don’t have to spend years drilling trees to build some basic tools, there’s no need to purchase plants (recipes are unlocked as soon as you find new materials) and I don’t have to plan meticulously how I want my house to look before I start building. You can instantly demolish a part of a structure and return your materials if you’re not sure.

In fact, construction is fast enough for me to start building temporary advanced operational bases before venturing into each new area, like the small fort below that took just five minutes and has since expanded twice.

Screenshot of Sean Hollister / The Verge

There is no telling how long the magic will last for me or the 2 million players in the game and counting, of course. It’s all been downhill for Among us on the PC, which currently attracts only a tenth of its peak player count of 438,000 last September (although it can still be very popular on mobile).

But I imagine that word of mouth can keep Valheim going for a while. I can’t wait to try the co-operative two to ten player game with my circle of friends, and that means more copies in the jungle.

If Valheim has staying power, expect to hear the name of this game on many lips in the coming months. If history is any indication, we will soon see a wave of imitations, fakes and attempts to make other games more like it, and there may be a lot of pressure on Iron Gate to port the game only on PC to consoles and phones as well. .

Update, February 19: Valheim has sold 3 million copies and now has a new record for the ninth most simultaneous player at any time on Steam.