You may have noticed Valheim in the last few weeks, the co-op survival game that appeared out of nowhere and is now on-track to become Steam's fastest-growing hit of all time. Less than three weeks after launching into early access, developer Iron Gate AB announced that "Valheim has now been purchased by over three million brave Vikings looking to survive the 10th world of the Yggdrasil—or die trying—probably crushed by a falling tree."
This is, apparently, the equivalent of "74,319 longhouses stuffed with Vikings singing songs."
It's hard to put a finger on exactly why Valheim's struck such a nerve. It's certainly been popular among streamers, and is currently the 7th most-played game on the platform, surpassing CS:GO, Dota 2, Minecraft and Rust (for now, at least). But the pace isn't slowing down, and in the last 24 hours its peak playercount was a wild 390,000.
Whatever the reasons behind its success, Valheim is a very good game indeed: one that, as our Fraser put it, rejects the boring bits of survival games.
