'Valheim' Breaks 'Terraria's' Peak Player Record At 500K

The overwhelming wave of popularity that “Valheim” is enjoying has currently put the game at the top of Steam’s open world survival crafting genre in terms of peak concurrent player count. The Viking-themed survival game had achieved the 3 million player milestone in less than three weeks, and shortly after, it smashed “Terraria’s” record for the highest number of concurrent players.

“Valheim” reached its highest peak player count of 498,478 on Monday, according to Steam analytics website SteamCharts. This marks the highest concurrent player count in the genre since “Terraria” reached 486,918 in May 2020.

“Valheim” has also risen to the top of Steam’s most popular games, sitting next to the likes of “Dota 2” and “CS:GO.”

SteamCharts also puts “Valheim” at the third spot in terms of peak player count in the past 30 days, overtaking “PUBG,” “Team Fortress 2” and “Apex Legends.”

The extreme rise in “Valheim’s” popularity has arguably made it one of Steam’s biggest releases of all time. This humble Viking game, despite its lo-fi graphical style and presence in a saturated genre, defied all odds and beat even big triple-A titles in terms of both sales figures and critical reception.

The game uses traditional survival game tropes such as base-building and food management while discarding punishing mechanics such as hunger and resource costs for repairing items and rebuilding structures. “Valheim” also successfully evokes a sense of adventure in players with its fun and rewarding exploration and basic-yet-meaningful item progression.

There is still much to “Valheim” that fans can anticipate. The game is currently in Early Access, and there are still plenty of in-game items that are yet to be implemented, such as Flametal and the Mistlands Biome.

Developer Iron Gate has laid out their plans for the future, including updates to player buildings, furniture and farming, as well as improvements to combat further down the road.

There are no official release dates for any of the major content updates as of yet, but “Valheim” seems to be receiving weekly patches in the form of bugfixes, balancing and tech improvements. Development remains steady, but considering the size of the development team, players will have to be very patient.