With 4 million copies sold in three weeks and meteorically rising to become the second most-played game on Steam, Valheim has seen unprecedented success, but it's not because of expensive marketing or overpromising, experts say.
Why is Valheim SO AWESOME?! – Early Access Done Right
It’s easy to write off something in Early Access as an unfinished product that doesn’t have much to offer, and there are plenty of Steam games that fit that bill. With Valheim, though, developer Iron Gate Studio has created something special; a game that seems to defy almost all expectations. That’s what experts say has helped it continue to break records despite being out less than a month.
"I can't stress enough that the game's overnight success is based on its own merit. I had not seen any ads, news, or friends about the game prior to its release," Jeff Brady, a writer at Set Ready Game, told Lifewire via email.
Where many early access games tend to overpromise by packing in a ton of features and aiming for a visual masterpiece, Valheim carved out its own niche. Instead of focusing on revolutionary gameplay or graphics, Iron Gate Studio mixed in several features from other successful survival and adventure games like Minecraft and Rust.
