How Valheim is utilizing UGC to become the next viral game

If you’ve been following any streaming platforms or gaming trends in general recently, then you’ve probably heard of Valheim. The game has been taking the gaming world by storm, having already created a very strong following since its February 2 release. 

Valheim has seen some staggering growth in the last two weeks, having sold 1 million copies in its first two weeks, and an extra million more in just three days afterward. The game is clearly experiencing exponential growth and while there are many reasons for this, a key one is how they have been using user generated content to full effect. 

IronGate and Valheim’s UGC strategy 

It’s clear that Valheim developer’s IronGate had user generated content well in mind when approaching their game. Not only is the game itself primed for UGC, being a survival game with crafting, but the marketing has also been focusing on their users' content from the get-go. 

All of Valheim’s social media is full of User Generated Content and a lot of it is interacted with in a way that few developers do. It’s more than just retweets, likes, or comments - some posts are simply sharing content that users have privately shared with Valheim, or things from other platforms that have been brought on to social media by the developers themselves. 

Of course, there’s also Twitch, YouTube, and other video content that has been a key factor in promoting the game - and you can bet IronGate has had a hand in it one way or another. 

Let’s take a detailed look at how exactly Valheim has been handling these things. 

Valheim’s in-game UGC is the perfect advertisement

When it comes to Valheim, the UGC essentially makes itself, and all the company really has to do is capitalize on it. If you’re unfamiliar with the type of game, Valheim is a sandbox survival game with crafting elements. Essentially, players start with nothing and must gather resources to make anything they want to use. 

This is prime territory for user generated content to thrive, since each player must create their own in-game content to progress and the majority of it will be unique. Therefore, to have UGC that can be shared and utilized in marketing takes only players playing the game and will be more abundant. 

The whole advertisement of the game feeds directly into user content, with the key game elements being for players to build their own adventure and build their own kingdom. This can then feed back into further advertising and promotion, showcasing the amazing creations users have made, showing and encouraging potential players to do the same, or come up with their own unique ideas. 

Valheim’s social media engagement

One of the key elements to Valheim’s growth is their social media strategy, namely how they utilize user generated content. 

All of Valheim’s social media pages are full of user content and it’s interacted with in multiple ways. Some content sees a like, retweet, favorite, etc. while other content has very personalized interactions. 

One of the best examples of this is on Twitter, where Valheim shared a user’s in-game castle. The user isn’t a big content creator, doesn’t have many followers on Twitter, and didn’t even post about the castle himself. The Valheim developers simply (somehow) found something cool in their game and decided to share it. It’s not something many other game developers do, but it does give a feeling that they really care about their game and definitely want to see what their players have done. 

When it comes to promotion, there’s no doubt other players or people thinking about buying the game would see this tweet and want to join in on the fun. Maybe their cool castle will be the next one featured on Valheim’s Twitter. 

Other than that, Valheim also promote a ton of user content, from Twitch streams and YouTube videos to fan art. This creates a cycle of promotion, where Valheim help their user’s gain attention, and in return, more users are motivated to promote the game in hope of being featured on social media. This goes round and round, where essentially everybody wins and a constant cycle of growth is formed. 

Thanks to this, Valheim has been growing as a game overall, as well as on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, going as far as to become one of the biggest games on those platforms. Let’s take a look how the game’s doing there, and how UGC is a part of it. 

Valheim’s impact on streaming and video platforms

Valheim has had a huge impact streaming and video platforms, with Twitch being the most affected. Streamers have flocked to the game, in no small part thanks to the social media strategy, and you can now find tens of thousands of concurrent viewers and hundreds of streamers on the game daily. 

Despite a slow start, the last week has seen Valheim climb to the 11th most-watched game on Twitch, not too far away from the top 10. As the game continues to pick up steam, we’ll no doubt see it break the top 10 and maybe even go as far as the top 5. 

Valheim is quickly turning into a viral sensation, with more and more players and viewers tuning in every day. The game even peaked as the third most played game on Steam recently and is showing no signs of stopping. 

While a lot of this can be attributed to the game itself, a huge part of its success is down to the utilization of user generated content. With the promotion of UGC being such a huge part of Valheim’s strategy, it was always going to be the perfect ground for streamers and content creators to join and thrive, which has so far worked out to perfection. 

Additionally, Valheim has been leveraging Lurkit's campaign feature to generate UGC through these platforms. Using our services, it's quick and easy to launch a campaign and have a plethora of various content creators interact with your game and begin creating content, with any guidelines you may want to set. 

Tracking influencer progress and content is also very simple, with the Lurkit livestream analytics tool displaying just about every bit of data you may need while featuring very flexible filters. 

Currently, content creators have generated millions of watch hours and Lurkit partners make up some of the most popular Valheim influencers. With this, there's a ton of UGC to go around and utilize. If you want to learn more about Lurkit services, make sure to contact us.