In February 2021, Valheim was the surprise hit on Steam and attracted millions of players in a short time. Now, a year later, the game still has tens of thousands of fans. MeinMMO takes a look at what has happened since the anniversary and why the game excites so many gamers.
The Current State of Valheim: Although Valheim was released as an unfinished indie game in early access on February 2, 2021, it remains popular to this day. In January 2022, according to steamcharts, over 55,600 players were playing Valheim simultaneously. Here are some key figures about the game:
- at release, Valheim attracted over 498,000 players simultaneously
- at its lowest point, the game still had 29,700 players simultaneously in August 2021
- with the release of Hearth & Home, the first major update, it jumped back to 109,700 players just one month later
On average, the game never had less than 17,000 players, which is an enormous number for a small indie project. The success has even surprised the developers, who decided to simply give away a horse.
Why are so many excited about Valheim? Valheim is essentially a challenging survival game, but it is also less punishing. You need to eat, but you cannot starve. Better equipment makes everything easier, but is only truly necessary in cold conditions.
The game offers many freedoms and approaches to play. You can explore the world alone or defeat the game’s tough bosses with friends. Build an entire city as a clan or create massive structures alone – or plan enormous projects like the Port of Stormwind.
Especially the building system excites most players consistently. They share their creations. The developers even held a competition to reward exactly such builders.
Valheim offers as many creative freedoms as Minecraft, but combines them with a story and forgoes the childish charm. Additionally, it requires no overly powerful computers and is even playable natively on Linux. The result is 95% positive reviews on Steam.
Consistently Strong Reviews, Sporadically New Content
How Valheim Has Developed: Since its release in February 2021, mainly bugs have been fixed. The developers stated from the beginning that they wanted to do everything “right” before new content comes in a big way. Nevertheless, there have been several new features:
- some balance patches and graphic updates for bosses
- a trash can that is surprisingly well received
- finally Hearth & Home, the long-awaited first update with new building and cooking recipes and a revised combat system
The longer development time does not seem to bother the core fans. Some clever Vikings have created new content through mods. Others want to turn Valheim into a true MMO with 1000 players.
Is it worth taking a look at the game? Even without mods, Valheim is still fun, as the player numbers alone show. If you enjoy co-op games and have a few friends on hand, you should give Valheim a chance – especially if you are creative minds with a knack for building systems.
But action is also in abundance. If you enjoy fighting, Valheim currently offers you 5 bosses with more to come and countless other enemies in a vast world. We even recommend Valheim at MeinMMO as one of the best games for newcomers to survival games.
Those who jump in now also have a good chance of seeing new content in the near future. Right after release, there was already a roadmap with plans, of which the first have been implemented, and others should be almost finished.
New Content is Almost Ready
In a developer update for the anniversary, the conversation included upcoming content. It states that they are currently planning the “final touches” on the new mountain update.
This is set to add caves and dungeons in the existing mountain biome, where wolves and other creatures dwell. When exactly the update will come is still unknown – but we expect it to be around the beginning of summer at the latest.
Additionally, there is already a first look at the new enemies from the planned Mistlands biome. The Mistlands are the first new biome to be introduced in Valheim. At first glance, it looks like an enchanted spider forest, where apparently strange moths will also be found:
Here you can find pictures of the new biomes
One of the new caves in the mountains with a resident. 
An image from the new mountain update. 
A cave in the mountains. What awaits inside? 
The Mistlands are taking shape. 
The Mistlands: Quite large tunnels … 
Huge nets 
The trees reach high into the sky. 
A new enemy from the Mistlands.
Data for the updates is still pending. As Valheim is still the project of a small team that has only recently been able to grow, at least the content that is directly upcoming will probably take a little longer. After all, game development takes years even for large studios.
Afterwards, it should ideally go faster once the team has reached an appropriate size. The developers have, however, already pointed out that Valheim will eventually come to an “end”. We are eagerly waiting to see when that will be.
In the meantime, 2022 already offers several other exciting survival titles that will hopefully quench the thirst for more:
