If you haven't pointed your eyes at the Steam stats lately, a new early access survival game has been climbing them like a rat up a drainpipe. And who's turning that rat into a gooey health-restoring vermin salve? Vampires. That's who.
Vampire survival game V Rising is officially a hit. According to developer Stunlock Studios (you might know them from 2017's Battlerite), a whopping 500,000 players have already sunk their fangs into the V Rising, which is amazing because it only just launched on Steam this past Tuesday. It definitely ticks a lot of popular boxes, with a big open world, survival systems, base-building and crafting, plus PvP and PvE as well as co-op and solo play.
When I looked about an hour ago V Rising also showed around 95,000 concurrent players on Steam, which has now risen (like the undead) to just over 100,000. And I expect it'll continue to draw (like blood) more players over the weekend.
It's official! 500,000 Vampires out there have stepped foot into Vardoran! Thank you all for joining us on this journey! pic.twitter.com/35pLD6DQW2May 20, 2022
Some of us here at PC Gamer have been playing it, too. Fraser wrote that despite some easy comparisons, V Rising is more than just Valheim with vampires. And, quite fittingly for a vampire game, it kept him up all night playing.
Jody is also a vampire, though he doesn't really feel like one due to V Rising's rather heavy focus on resource gathering. I sorta agree—when I think of vampires in pop-culture, they're typically not spending hours smashing ore boulders with a huge mace so they can smelt a few copper bars. But I'm still having a good time slowly growing in power, transforming into a wolf, sucking blood out of local bandits, and trying not to let the sun burn me to a crisp during daylight hours.
If you're thinking of getting started, we've got a few guides for beginners, like how V Rising's blood essence works, plus how to craft leather, where to get stone bricks, and how to find whetstones. Good hunting, you bloodsuckers.
