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Valheim sells three million in less than three weeks

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Could be the biggest viral hit in Steam's history.

Valheim
(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

You may have noticed 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, suring 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.

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before ing PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."