We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

13 days after release and it seems there's no stopping the absolute insane rise of the co-op survival game Valheim, as the developer has now announced two million sales. For a game largely developed on Linux that supports Linux fully, this is pretty amazing.

This makes Valheim one of the most successful survival games on Steam, ever. Not only that, it makes it one of the most successful Early Access games ever too. It repeatedly hits new highs on the player count, most recently hitting 392,862 online on February 15.

Valve have certainly taken notice too, as the Steam store page will now greet you with this when you first take a look. This is something not many games get, especially not indie games in Early Access it's often reserved for the big names.

Just how popular is Valheim compared with other survival styled games? Well, it's now comfortably in the actual top five on Steam for player count overall so it's beating the likes of Rust and ARK by a wide margin. Not just current players, the peak player count for Valheim is also far higher than all other survival games apart from Terraria at 489,886 although Terraria only ever hit such a high mark once and has never even come close to 100K since. It's safe to say that Valheim is a viral hit, somehow.

Most other games took a while to build up their numbers but Valheim just exploded and continues to rise. What do you think has caused such a huge influx of players right after release? I don't think we can say for certain but the reasonable price, along with the surprising amount of content probably helps.

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

You can buy Valheim with Linux support on Steam. It's an easy recommendation.

Just as a reminder: if you want to hook up with other Linux players, our Discord has a Game Server channel with multiple people hosting already and plenty of regulars from our community joining in on the fun.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
22 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
28 comments
Page: «3/3
  Go to:

drlamb Feb 16, 2021
Quoting: LosButchAnyone have experience with multiplayer cross platform? Curious about this game, so how hard is it to host a game with a windows, mac and linix mix?

I run a dedicated server for my clan and it's been great. The server runs on Linux but I'm the only one out of 7 people that plays on it using Linux.
finaldest Feb 16, 2021
Brought this game yesterday. have not played it yet due to time constraints.

This kind of style game does not usually appeal to me but took a punt on it anyway due to overwhelming hype and a cheap asking price, but most importantly it supports linux.

hopefully the linux sales numbers are good.
g000h Feb 17, 2021
Solution to gaming on Linux popularity - Get a bunch of popular game streamers to jump onto Linux, praise it, and then we just wait for the torrent, haha.
Cybolic Feb 17, 2021
Quoting: woox2k
Quoting: NanobangI feel like its "one of ours," and it's gone into the world and "done good."
Indeed, i also got tens of hours of fun when playing the alpha. Don't get too carried away with this Linux thing though. Pretty much noone will ever know or care that it was partly developed on Linux and had day 0 support. Only Linux people will talk about it, like Arch people advertise their distro of choice.

Well.... A friend of mine actually picked it up about a week ago because he knows I run Linux and had somehow heard that Valheim was developed on Linux so he "wanted to try a game developed on Linux" as that wasn't something he had bumped in to before. This was right before the media frenzy, so Linux turned out to be an actual selling point!
Janne Feb 18, 2021
I really like the graphical design; the low poly models together with the very atmospheric lighting and ambient effects makes for a game that feels "real" but never falls into the uncanny valley or look dated.

And wo far I love the game itself. Playing solo and currently trying to build up the courage to take out a troll that's in the way of exploring the forest.
beko Feb 19, 2021
Quoting: NanobangSigh. I still have screen shots of the itch version. It was so darn cute.
I still have a dedicaded up and the client for that too :)
WorMzy Feb 19, 2021
Up to three million now: https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/892970/announcements/detail/3059603718053006419

Just goes to show that games with mead in them sell well. ;D
Dmitri Seletski Nov 8, 2021
Quoting: drlambThis game is leagues more polished and performant than 7 Days to Die, which what, has been in development since 2014?
Yes, its in perpetual development.
I necropost here because its first time in over a year I logged in again.
Yes, 7 days to die may have worse performance, BUT, it offers so many more "blocks"/"textures" and you have to remember, its voxel based game:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/762-voxels-vs-vertexes-in-games

compared to many other games, 7days to die is ALLOWED to have performance hit. You have to remember, a good looking game world, where you can destroy 99.999% of ALL matter in it - will be significanlty more taxing than Vertex based game. And with that it still looks better than Valhem. And 7 days to die is very much enjoyable single player. In fact, it creates nice atmosphere of being cut off from rest of world and damning feeling of being all alone.(ok, plane drops break it a little)
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.