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WARDOGS
Game
Game2026
Valheim
Developer Iron Gate AB
Valheim is a survival video game by the Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio and published by Coffee Stain Publishing. It was released in early access for Linux and Microsoft Windows via Steam on 2 February 2021, and for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 14 March 2023. The full version was released on 9 September 2026 alongside versions for the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. Valheim is developed by a five-person… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
1,771 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
1,127 positive · 364 negative
95% range 73–78%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 1127 | 364 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 76 | 14 | 101 |
| Mastodon * | 9 | 3 | 42 |
| Lemmy * | 7 | 2 | 26 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
295,352 of 314,209 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
77% recommend · 313 yes, 91 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 404 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (522,880 of 558,708 positive).
Players praise Valheim as an exceptional survival game with deep mechanics and a compelling atmosphere. [1][2][3] Some players criticize the slow development pace and lack of quality-of-life updates. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
Used to be one of my favorite games, but I've lost confidence that the devs are actually putting in any real work anymore. They're drip feeding us meaningless updates months apart while selling board games, plushies, and candles. Literally everything BUT finishing the game. What a shame.
- [10]
I originally bought this game back in 2021 to cheer up a friend of mine. We proceeded to play this game for 13+ hours straight. Years later, we are now married and getting ready to play the 1.0 release as a date night. One of the best survival games I've ever played, and it helped me get married. 10/10 Edit: I never thought in a million years this would end up the most helpful review of the game. I just wanted to …
- [2]
Valheim is a peaceful Viking survival game the same way drowning is a peaceful swimming activity. This is accidentally one of the best designed survival games ever made, which is frustrating because now every other game just looks lazy. One of the best structured progressions in the genre One of the cleanest and most addictive gameplay loops Proof that simple systems layered properly beat bloated overdesigned trash …
- [3]
Valheim is genuinely one of those games where you boot it up thinking “I’ll play for like an hour” and suddenly it’s 3 AM and you’re building a medieval Scandinavian suburb in the middle of nowhere The atmosphere is immaculate. Sailing through fog, hearing the music kick in, finding a new biome, building a cozy ass house after getting absolutely violated by a troll… peak gaming. The progression is also really …
- [1]
Valheim isn’t for everyone. But for the people it is for, it is **exceptional.** "Co-op survival crafting meets fantasy RPG" could go wrong in so many ways. Valheim gets it right: - Deep but intuitive mechanics - Epic Viking atmosphere with a dash of epic Viking goofiness - The perfect balance of combat, exploration, building, and chilling - Progression that feels meaningful, never grindy - Procedural worlds that …
Summarised from 34 of the 544 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
77% of the 404 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Valheim. The complaint that keeps coming up: slow development pace with infrequent meaningful updates. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Valheim received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 94% of critics recommended the game. The early access version of Valheim has received positive reviews from critics. IGN Nordic gave the game a rating of 9/10, stating that the game has "excellent art and music highlighting a world that generates endless exciting stories". PC Gamer called Valheim a "rare exception" for early access games, as well as stating that the game "feels refined and satisfying as it is right now". The Washington Post appreciated that Valheim did not elaborate on certain gameplay and story elements, allowing its fans to build a sense of…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 1,771 · most liked firstI originally bought this game back in 2021 to cheer up a friend of mine. We proceeded to play this game for 13+ hours straight. Years later, we are now married and getting ready to play the 1.0 release as a date night. One of the best survival games I've ever played, and it helped me get married. 10/10 Edit: I never thought in a million years this would end up the most helpful review of the game. I just wanted to share my anecdotal reason why I love this game because my wife and I thought it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim isn’t for everyone. But for the people it is for, it is **exceptional.** "Co-op survival crafting meets fantasy RPG" could go wrong in so many ways. Valheim gets it right: - Deep but intuitive mechanics - Epic Viking atmosphere with a dash of epic Viking goofiness - The perfect balance of combat, exploration, building, and chilling - Progression that feels meaningful, never grindy - Procedural worlds that somehow never feel repetitive - Co-op that is cooperative ("Pass the eyescream,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm an older player. (in my seventies), but it was my sons who introduce me to the game. Though them have since moved on I continue to use Valheim on a regular basis. I mostly use the game for two things. Keeping my memory active, and for building things. I've built lots and lots of shelters of various kinds, and am continuing to improve the quality and techniques. To do so I pretty much operate with the development commands to make things easier for doing what I like best. I continue to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was in production for an incredibly long time which usually I wouldn't mind but there is a staggeringly lacking amount of Quality of Life updates that I thought for sure would be coming for the full release but they never did. No equipment sheet for equipped items. No server settings for durability or food degradation. No transmog/fashion options for equipment. Messy key rebinding. IE if you set inventory screen to the "i" key, whenever you are typing anything with an "i" in it,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is still my go to crafting survival game, and it's nice to see this kind of statement, especially these days.
positive · AI labelView post →Raising a tankard for all those who played and loved Valhiem but never made it to see the 1.0 release! We will play it for hours and hours in your memory.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dear people at Iron Gate. I absolutely love your game and have spent many more hours than I would like to admit playing it. So would you Please use some of the small funds you made off of the millions of presales to hire some interns/modders to clean up your technical/design debt? You can only hide behind the "prerelease" tag for so long, and that time is well past. If you know that armor sets work better without a cape, why is the weakest armor set (the troll set) still the only one requires…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Used to be one of my favorite games, but I've lost confidence that the devs are actually putting in any real work anymore. They're drip feeding us meaningless updates months apart while selling board games, plushies, and candles. Literally everything BUT finishing the game. What a shame.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quality gameplay but glacial development pace. There's been two biomes added in the last 5 years.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is amazing until you reach Moder, then the devs seem to disagree with eachother about the direction of the game. Half the game is a cozy building game, half the game is survival, and half the game is trying to be a combat action RPG. The problem with three halves is that none of them feel fleshed out fully. Also, three halves don't make a whole, so each of them had to cut parts of them off to make it all fit. It leaves all three aspects feeling unfinished. The sailing update was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this game with my partner a lot who recently passed. I have picked it back up and it's given me a lot of comfort in my grief to share a game with someone I love and memories of the times we played it. Can't wait for 1.0.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of my favorite survival games, but Iron Gate doesn't love it as much as we do. Writing this review today because quite frankly I'm sick and tired of the nothing-burger updates they keep posting to their news section for the game. The last time I played this game, it was back when caves were added, the cool new thing was the Fenris armor. That was in 2022. It is now an entire 4 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years later and every time I see an update from Iron Gate, it's all yap about some ♥♥♥♥♥♥…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is not for everyone, and unfortunately that includes me. you can, however, get a pretty decent experience out of it if you modify the world settings. disregard any valheim hardcore-truthers; it's a single-player game and you can play how you want. i think the "intended" design is too riddled with annoyances to be worth playing casually. quick overview of the intended design; - tedium baked into every aspect of gameplay - janky combat that has only minimally improved over the 5 years…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don’t regret my time with Valheim, not one bit. When it launched, it felt like something special, one of those rare survival games that actually nails atmosphere, progression, and that “just one more trip” loop. And to be fair, a lot of that is still true today. Which is why the following is so frustrating. After roughly five years in early access, the amount of new content added is borderline unacceptable. We’ve gotten a couple of biomes and a few minor updates, far less than you’d expect…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to get flack for this, but this game is a monotonous grind. Working towards something bigger in video games is always part of the enjoyment and hook, but this was just too slow. The building system is picky, the combat is clunky, and the inventory management just feels off. Progression overrall feels like it takes so long to get going and the guidelines to get you there are too vague. I enjoy exploring and learning systems, but for an Open World Survival game the curve was just a bit…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Regardless of how many hours I have for Valheim, I have NEVER seen a dev consistently disrespect thier community as often as Iron Gate does. Despite MILLIONS in sales and being in EA for 5 YEARS now, Iron Gate has still only managed to release 2 new biomes. During this entire 5 years period, fans have asked for QoL improvements to be added to the game and in that time, BARELY anything has been implemented. Simple things like equipment slots or backpacks consistently recieve pushback from the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun survival start that quickly becomes more and more miserable (not challenging, just tedious and annoying) as you progress. Pathetically slow dev cycle. Entire other survival games with more complex ideas have been ideated, developed, and released in the time it's taken for a single new biome to release, that, again, isn't even fun in the first place. Update newsletters are sparse and lack any real substance worth reading. I've seen more Valheim merchandise and product placement in the past 8…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game with the most replayability I have ever experienced. There are so many ways to approach it. The base game is full of options, play it as a hardcore combat game...or as a hardcore survival game... or as a casual exploration game... or as a simple survival game... or as a complicated building game...and so much more. I have started from scratch with enthusiasm over and again. The best money I have ever spent on a game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is still missing the same basic QoL features that were missing the first time I played years ago.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is a peaceful Viking survival game the same way drowning is a peaceful swimming activity. This is accidentally one of the best designed survival games ever made, which is frustrating because now every other game just looks lazy. One of the best structured progressions in the genre One of the cleanest and most addictive gameplay loops Proof that simple systems layered properly beat bloated overdesigned trash every time The brilliance is sneaky. Nothing is complicated on its own —…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Probably one of the best survival crafters out there. This game kept me sane during the COVID pandemic, I was stuck at home and it gave me the outlet I needed. 5 years later and we made it to 1.0, it’s been a long journey from the Meadows to Valhalla. The bees are happy and so am I.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is fun, until it isn't. Valheim starts out as a genuinely good and enjoyable survival game. Exploring, building, crafting new equipment and figuring out how each biome works is satisfying. The early progression feels like you're constantly discovering something new. Then you reach Swamp. From that point onward, the game becomes increasingly tedious. What was initially an enjoyable survival/exploration loop slowly turns into a chore: carry loot back to base, fight enemies,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim's gameplay, at its core, is fun. It's the same type of survival game you've probably played before and it has the same familiar structure you're used to...but unlike a lot of other survival games Valheim can quickly fall apart once you realize almost every single mechanic is designed to slow you down and be as grindy as possible which inflates playtime to an enormous degree, and while there are custom modifiers in place to address this much like other survival games, Valheim has a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim isn't a game. It's a place you keep coming back to. I've spent hundreds of hours here, both alone and with a good friend. Over time it became much more than a way to pass an evening. It was there for me during some hard times in my life, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it helped me get through them. Here you find whatever you need at the moment. Want a fight? Grab your axe and go meet whatever dares to challenge you. Want adventure? Raise the sail and let the sea decide where it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →after almost 1k hours in this game, i can say, it is a really frustrating game. The early game seems pretty balanced. the progression feels good. exploration is fun and exciting. but once you hit mid to late game, its abysmal. Oh whats that, you just spent the last 20 hours preparing yourself for the plains? whats that? youve upgraded all your gear to the best gear you can have and have eaten the best foods you can get? oh, well that doesnt matter since a single 1 star fuling can one shot you.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You've played for 10042 hours Would you recommend this game to other players? duh. If you like picking up stones and wood, sneaking up on trolls and progressing through a world with eight distinct biomes, fighting increasingly harder mobs and biome bosses while building a fort or mansion in wood or stone and cooking some of the weirdest foods in gaming, this might be for you. Its a progressively generated open world with survival/crafting mechanisms and base building. Id recommend it if any…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game’s core concept is great - don’t get me wrong. However, I can’t recommend it for the following reasons: - It has been in Early Access for around five years. - This game single-handedly convinced me never to buy an Early Access title again. It perfectly demonstrates the risk of a game that may never be truly finished. - With nearly every major update, you’re forced to start from scratch. There are no meaningful retroactive updates to existing worlds, so new content often doesn’t…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →- start game - build humble abode - ascend mountain to find resources - get attacked/killed by wolves - decide wolves are your mortal enemy - create entire plan around luring wolves down the mountain to kill them for their fur - create gear set around the skins of your enemies - don't stop there - dig holes, trap the wolves - lure in other things to fight them - learn they can be bred? - breed wolves - learn they have star systems - breed rare wolves - breed entire army of wolves - give them…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →bought this game thinking i would be a mighty viking blessed by odin himself. instead ive been emotionally bullied by a tree, died to fall damage while trying to look cool, lost my spear when trying to hit a greyling, and have spent 3 real life hours on a house and have it collapse due to misunderstanding structural integrity. combat? brutal exploration? endless scenery? beautiful My survival chance? absolutely not everytime i log in i say "just 20 minutes" and suddenly its 4 hours…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(Of course IGN gave this game a 10/10.) The Devs do not care for this game, And I'm tired of all the people defending and making excuses for lack luster content, sparse updates with shallow nothing content, and the greed of these Devs. The game itself, is very fun, more so with friends. The resource grind is tedious and the combat is basic and a little clunky in places but a lot of these criticisms can also be solved by the in game options. However it took a long while for these in game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ive played the absolute hell out of this game... with and WITHOUT mods and honestly... the 1.0 update?? Was such a let down. Wheres the balance changes... QoL changes... biome love to other parts of the world??? We got anime cut scenes and deep north... COOL..? Like the deep north change actually cool but there should be WAY more added or adjusted throughout the game other than just some animation stuff and end game stuff. Mods have been carrying the hell outta this game and I guess they…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game's development is just like the past 5 years of my life: Did nothing and convinced myself I've "improved" in the end.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3,000 Hours Later… Still One of the Greats After more than 3,000 hours in Valheim, I can confidently say this game has some of the best long‑term replayability I’ve ever experienced. Every time I return, it pulls me right back in with that perfect mix of exploration, survival, and creativity. Building new bases is still an absolute joy — whether it’s a tiny outpost tucked into a dangerous biome or a sprawling longhouse worthy of Odin himself. The building system is so satisfying that I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is one of those rare games that never loses its magic. No matter how many times I come back, it somehow pulls me right back in. I finished my third full playthrough about six months ago, and it still managed to consume my entire weekend the moment I reinstalled it. That's saying something for a survival game that's been in early access this long. Either Odin really wants me chopping trees, or I have absolutely no self-control. Visually, Valheim punches way above its weight. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Our new title, Indie Game Works, explores 50 visionary independent titles including Cairn, Tunic, GRIS, Valheim, DREDGE, 1000xRESIST, Genesis Noir, Abzû and A Short Hike, among many others, bringing together in-game imagery, development artwork, and early sketch material.
neutral · AI labelView post →Valheim 1.0 & Deep North: Sept 9.. > "The release will hit PC, Linux, Mac, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S as per usual, and now we’re also adding PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 to the roster. Of course there will be full crossplay between all the platforms, so that you can play with your friends."
neutral · AI labelView post →“It’s like Minecraft but instead of punching trees you spend 40 minutes looking for the perfect tree, then a troll destroys your entire house, then you sail for 2 hours just to get killed by a sea snake the size of a school bus. 10/10. Early game: "wow this is cozy." Mid game: "wow this is brutal." Late game: "why am I hauling 900 pounds of copper through a black forest in a thunderstorm while being hunted by skeletons, teddy bears and the trees themselves." Every biome feels like the devs…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is genuinely one of those games where you boot it up thinking “I’ll play for like an hour” and suddenly it’s 3 AM and you’re building a medieval Scandinavian suburb in the middle of nowhere The atmosphere is immaculate. Sailing through fog, hearing the music kick in, finding a new biome, building a cozy ass house after getting absolutely violated by a troll… peak gaming. The progression is also really satisfying. Every biome actually feels like an achievement, and finally getting the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ god tier ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandpa ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Brotato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you’ve booted up the game you’ll have noticed a brand new #Valheim intro! We’re just so impressed with what Brikk has created, which really makes the game feel like a 1.0, so of course we have to put it up on YouTube as well. More cinematics to follow soon👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=gny3...
neutral · AI labelView post →This game has a quarter million reviews already, there's not much to say that hasn't already been said. This is my go-to forever game when all the rest of the gaming industry has been enshitified. It's cheap, it's packed with content, there aren't any microtransactions. Buy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very slow. If you are thinking about buying this - be warned, you'll be running, cutting, mining, sorting out chests for like 90% of your game time, and the other 10% is very basic combat. Great if you want a slow paced survival kind of experience. Not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim 1.0 Launches After 5 Years in Early Access. > Valheim launched into Steam Early Access in February 2021 and quickly garnered attention, launching with over 500,000 peak concurrent players on Steam and still counting over 20,000 daily concurrent players at the time of writing. Now, over five years after the Early Access launch, the open-world survival-craft game is finally launching out of Early Access, with a slew of new content and a new biome in-tow.
neutral · AI labelView post →Built a cozy house. Lit a fire inside. Forgot about ventilation. Died of smoke inhalation in my own home. This game perfectly captures the Viking experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love is in the air! We’re happy to announce that a new romance-focused game mode is coming to #Valheim soon, where you will finally be able to charm the Forsaken! Which boss will capture your heart? 💕
neutral · AI labelView post →Do not get me wrong: I love Valheim. It is the game that fills the Minecraft itch for me, as once a year or so I will pester my friends to play it to its current endgame. Every time, more and more, my friends are more resistant. They think it is difficult, a slog, or unfinished. At first, these all felt like valid but personal excuses independent of the game itself. The combat - while simple - was a healthy challenge. It felt meaningful to prepare for excursions. Both the adrenaline spikes of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the fourth game to receive a 5 out of 5 from @giantbomb.com this year. The others are Forza Horizon 6, Valheim, and... [checks notes] ...Beetle Adventure Racing. The team has also now reviewed more games in 2026 than the last 8 years combined.
neutral · AI labelView post →I had fun with this....5 years ago. The fact that it's been in Early Access for five years is an indictment on the developer. Steam should really limit the amount of time a game can be called "early access"
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →build and defend, explore and gather, improve and experiment This game could be described as Viking-afterlife-themed Minecraft. I've logged nearly 4,000 hours already, and I'm not finished with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been playing Valheim with friends, which is a fun sort of Viking Minecraft game. A number of elements of which I find wildly amusing. 1. It's a game that is simultaneously very concerned with being Vikings doing Viking stuff, with some really good sailing mechanics for your longship...
positive · AI labelView post →Valheim 1.0 launches after 5 years in Early Access.
neutral · AI labelView post →*Navigates 3hrs to get iron* *Forgets to bring pickaxe* *Forgets to build portal* *Dies* 10/10, would die again
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If I had to choose one word to describe this game, it would be "obnoxious". I can not think of another game that goes so hard out of its way to make you miserable in the pettiest way possible. It makes everything possible to waste your time and bog down your progress. You want to land on this swamp and make a post? Here is a relentless spawn of ghosts and skellies that would not allow you to even land properly, would constantly destroy your workbench, your portal and your ship. Do you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We’re nominated for a whole THREE categories in this year’s Golden Joystick Awards! We would be honoured if you would give #Valheim your vote for Best Multiplayer Game, Best Indie Game and PC Game of the Year! 😍 www.gamesradar.com/goldenjoysti...
neutral · AI labelView post →If you like terraria but wish it was 3d, and love minecraft but feel like it lacks in PVE and real boss fights, then this game is for you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim finally hit its full 1.0 release, so @chucktowski.com wrote a review for y'all breaking down how it has become a masterful multiplayer survival game. Read it here! ➡️ giantbomb.com/reviews/valh...
neutral · AI labelView post →For as cozy of a game as Valheim is, it also does a great job of facilitating these moments where you get so many adds that the situation is all the way fucked, and you decide the only option is to full send it, then 10 seconds later you're standing in a pile of bug guts yelling, "ODIN!!!"
positive · AI labelView post →It's just grind... grind... grind... that never delivers any enjoyment or feeling of accomplishment. Things that sounds great at the begging but then are super annoying: - you cannot teleport ore - that was actually great!... for the first 3 or 4 biomes... but then this game mechanic is repeated over and over again. It literally took me 30 minutes of just sailing to get ore from one outpost base to my main base (on the fastest boat!) - every boss contains key item that unlocks a new biome for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valheim is one of those perfect example games of why not to buy early access. This review will get dogged fast by any fans that read it but you genuinely should not consider this game unless it's on sale, Valheim has been riding off the initial hype it received and has not done anything to deserve it since. The wheels have long fallen off and the car's only moving because the fanbase is pushing it, since the developers have no real incentive to actually do anything with this game, having…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the video games I would like to make is a collaborative multiplayer dark ages survival game. I really enjoyed the early game of Valheim, but at a certain point it gets very prescriptive and linear in its progression and shifts to rpg power gaming over survival.
neutral · AI labelView post →
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