Our 2021 GOTY, Valheim, is now on Game Pass

The Nordic-flavored survival game that took PC gaming by storm in 2021 is now chopping down trees and killing Odin's creatures on Microsoft's PC Game Pass.

If you're already exploring Valheim's biomes, building castles and longships, getting up to viking business and whatnot, this is a fantastic way to get new friends into the game. Valheim's crossplay functionality will allow you to connect with friends playing on PC Game Pass and even consoles—if you need help with that, we have a guide on how to enable crossplay in Valheim.

The move to Game Pass comes ahead of Valheim's Mistlands update, which is still expected to release by the end of the year. From what we know so far, the update will feature new fauna, weapons, armor, and some evocative-looking ruins. Mistlands was initially set to release at the end of 2021, and we did note in our State of Valheim 2022 feature that impatience for the new expansion is one of very few points of discontent in the community.

Valheim is still in early access, technically, but despite that label, it earned our top award last year.

"Millions of people spending months absorbed in an Early Access game made by a tiny studio is the kind of magic I adore about PC games," Lauren Morton wrote in our 2021 Game of the Year Award writeup.

With an update on the way and the ability to play via Game Pass, or at least invite Game-Pass-subscription-having friends to play with you, it seems like as good a time as ever to get into Valheim.