Five years ago, at the height of the pandemic that had everyone staying inside and tons of folks playing video games, one of the biggest hits in PC gaming was Valheim — Iron Gate Studios' open-world survival adventure game that launched into Early Access with full support for co-op multiplayer and player-run server hosting.
Set in a mythological Norse purgatory world in which players must conquer the map and its challenges to earn a place in Valhalla, the game's premise — along with its engaging gameplay loops, robust base-building mechanics, and beautiful audiovisual presentation — drew in a peak of over 500,000 concurrent Steam players, with millions of copies sold in just a couple weeks.
