Believe it or not, Valheim has only been available to play in Early Access for about three weeks. In that short time, the PC survival game has notched more than 3 million wannabe vikings on its hand-crafted leather belt. That last milestone came just this past Friday and was celebrated by the relatively small Dev team over at Iron Gate. But the draugr-dashing darling of a title has achieved yet another record on the Steam charts, one that places it in the Top 5 games all-time.

In just the last two weeks, Valheim has been soaring in popularity, selling first 1 million, then 2 million copies in short order. The Dev team is, of course, keeping up with updates as players swamp the swamp (and other procedurally generated biomes), with their latest patch coming just a few days ago. A good thing, too. Valheim just passed Terraria for a record-setting number of concurrent players all-time, moving it up past the somewhat similar sandbox-styled game by a few thousand players.

Concurrent users on Steam overall just peaked a couple of weeks ago at more than 26 million, while Valheim now holds the #5 position with more than 500,000 concurrent players; that's behind heavy-hitters like Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS. The viking-themed survival game may yet climb those ranks -- it's currently #3 among concurrent players over the last 48 hours -- though it'll have to double its player base to take on the CD Projekt Red title. Who knows, perhaps the gritty indie title will outlast the beleaguered sci-fi RPG in due time.

Image via Iron Gate, Coffee Stain Publishing

What's all the fuss about, you ask? Allow Steam to lay it all out for you on Valheim's launch page:

A battle-slain warrior, the Valkyries have ferried your soul to Valheim, the tenth Norse world. Besieged by creatures of chaos and ancient enemies of the gods, you are the newest custodian of the primordial purgatory, tasked with slaying Odin’s ancient rivals and bringing order to Valheim.

Your trials begin at the disarmingly peaceful centre of Valheim, but the gods reward the brave and glory awaits. Venture forth through imposing forests and snow-capped mountains, explore and harvest more valuable materials to craft deadlier weapons, sturdier armor, viking strongholds and outposts. Build a mighty longship and sail the great oceans in search of exotic lands … but be wary of sailing too far...

Key features:

  • Huge procedurally-generated world - explore and inhabit mystical lands, from mysteriousforests to imposing snow-topped mountain ranges and stunning meadows, complete with their own creatures of legend to battle and wildlife to hunt.
  • Co-op PvE (2-10 players) - - Whether you want to brave the lands alone or venture with trusted allies, Valheim supports independent, player-hosted servers and unlimited world creation. We recommend playing co-op with 3-5 players.
  • Punishing dodge & block based combat system with a wide range of weapons
  • Build & sail ships - from flimsy rafts to imposing warships, build legendary vessels to conquer the seas and discover new lands.
  • Summon and defeat vengeful primordial bosses of myth and legend, and collect trophies to progress and craft new powerful items
  • Flexible house and base building system - raise mead halls, farms, settlements outposts, castles and more.
  • Intuitive item crafting - forge the finest weapons and armour, and craft food and mead.
  • Dedicated server- for players who want to run a persistent server. If you prefer not to run a server on your PC, consider renting a server at G-Portal.
Image via Iron Gate, Coffee Stain Publishing

Community-translated languages:

In addition to the officially supported languages, Valheim has several community-translated languages. As the name would suggest these are all translated by fans and members of the community, and is an ongoing process. We can't guarantee the quality nor completeness of any specific translation effort.

The following languages have been partially translated by the community:

  • Svenska
  • Italiano
  • Romanian
  • български
  • македонски
  • Suomi
  • Dansk
  • íslenska
  • Lietuvių kalba
  • čeština
  • Magyar nyelv
  • Português europeu
  • 한국어 (불완전한)