Vikings, pirates, aliens, and more battle in a tourney of champions for bragging rights, mead, and the joy of delivering a beatdown. Players can play classic four player local matches, fight online, or create a custom lobby to challenge friends.

Odin, King of the Gods, built a heaven for warriors and called it Valhalla. On his command, Valkyries, beautiful goddesses of war, scoured the universe for the greatest warriors to fill this hall. To Odin’s surprise, the Valkyries brought back not only vikings, but legendary warriors of every description, and soon pirates, cowboys, Mongol warriors, Amazons, even monsters and aliens roamed the hall.

While waiting for Ragnarok, the warriors become bored. Constant battle spilled out of the Great Hall, and Asgard was smashed to rubble again and again. Odin, pulling his hair out in a last moment of desperation, set up the grand tournament. Now, the best warriors from every time and place fight to become champion, while the Valkyries constantly venture far and wide to bring back warriors who will earn them honor in Brawlhalla.

Brawlhalla recently passed a momentous landmark: 100 million lifetime players.

To celebrate, the game will host a special event starting today.

The 100 Million Brawlers Event will run until June 7, and while it's live, all Legends will be available to play in the free-to-play rotation for the first week, the Brawl of the Week queue will feature daily rotating game modes, and Mallhalla, the in-game store, will have daily themed sale items.

In terms of new content, there's an Epic Skin for Inari Yumiko, a Color Scheme, themed login rewards, and Demon Island background animations, among others.

As of today, players will also see a new logo and other visual branding updates that will remain in-game after the 100 Million Brawlers Event ends.

"We kept saying that once we put the game out there, it belongs to the players," says Sparkes. "So we had to pay attention and listen to what the players were saying, figure out why they're saying those things, and use that to decide where the game went. We started seeing community organizers right off the bat, so we watched those players and gave them all the support that we could."

One of those early community members was Dang. She first started playing Brawlhalla during its closed beta in 2015, and quickly realized there was a need for more community tournaments, so she started organizing them alongside her husband Duc Pham, currently a video producer for Brawlhalla, and Alex "Sparky" Rahaim, who is currently a Brawlhalla commentator.

"This was before they had 2v2 with team damage, so we created a whole tournament that was technically a free for all, but you dressed in the same color as your teammate," Dang recalls. "And I swear the devs were watching, because they implemented team damage right after that community tournament."

"We kept seeing where they were having problems, and making decisions about how we could avoid those problems for them, and how we could grow the game in a way that's supported," adds Sparkes. "We just kept being connected, listening, and adding what the players really wanted, and growing as much as we could."

And grow Brawlhalla did, both in terms of the number of players and the content the game offered. During the closed beta, there were 10 Legends; now there are 58. The game also introduced new weapons for players to use, and started doing Epic Crossovers, which let the team incorporate outside brands like Shovel Knight, Rayman, and most recently Avatar: The Last Airbender into the Brawlhalla universe. The development team also added a cross-play feature in 2019, which Dang and Sparkes agree significantly contributed to Brawlhalla's growth. But there's one special milestone that signaled to Sparkes that the game had a solid community.

"We started getting more and more fan art, and the emotion we got from that caught some of us by surprise," he says. "We realized there were people hanging out in class, doodling the characters we created, just like we did when we were doodling characters of whatever our favorite game was. It created a neat moment where we realized this is something special, and something amazing is happening right now. We always love seeing the fan art that gets made, and when something gets drawn, we'll share it around the office."

As Brawlhalla scaled in playerbase and content, the development team had to work through unique challenges, both technical and in listening to a growing community. "Every time we went to a new platform, there were a whole series of unknown challenges, because the way the game works has to be identical on all platforms," says Sparkes. "We've had to shift over the years how we've handled production for that, but taking it one step at a time each way. It's a fun challenge."

"There also comes a challenge with community feedback, and making sure we're receiving the right kind of feedback and that we have all types of players represented," adds Dang. "We have people who play casually as well as competitively, and we want to listen to all their feedback, put something out there that has something for everyone, and make sure that anyone who's picking up the game, whether you're young, old, new, or pro, has something there for them."

One way the team balances meeting the needs and feedback of casual and competitive players is through Brawlhalla's updates. According to Sparkes, the team alternates between competitive and casual content.

"A concrete example is when we release new maps," Sparkes says. "You can see maps come in different categories and show up in different playlists based on the geometry of the map - there are a series of maps that are expressly for competitive play that are completely different than maps for casual play, like the free-for-all modes. So we alternate between the maps we're doing in the patches; it's rare we do five competitive maps in a row or five free-for-all maps in a row."

Now that Brawlhalla has reached 100 million lifetime players, the team is ecstatic, and is celebrating with a special in-game event and brand redesign, all designed with the players in mind.

"It's quite literally a celebration and very community focused; the content are things that players have requested for a long time. For example, during the event, we have a timed event mission where players can jump into the game, and if they win on a Legend, they unlock the black-and-purple color scheme for that Legend, which the community has been requesting for a really long time," says Dang. "There's a little bit of everything for everyone. I don't want to give away too much, but there's a sneak peek of something in the celebration for players who are keeping their eyes out. That's all I'm going to say."

Reflecting on eight years of Brawlhalla, Dang and Sparkes agree that community has been the cornerstone of the game, from the first player to the 100 millionth. "To our first player, I would say I'm so happy that you found us right at the beginning when we needed people, and thank you for helping shape where Brawlhalla went," says Sparkes. "We really did change a lot of ideas once we started having people who weren't us playing."

"We couldn't have reached literally 100 million players without our community," says Dang. "And to the 100 millionth player, I want to give them a warm welcome to Brawlhalla, and I hope you're making friends, enjoying the game, and having a fantastic time making lasting bonds that I feel like sometimes only a videogame can create."

Brawlhalla's straightforward controls make the game easy for new players to pick up, while still having the depth to support a thriving competitive community. With more than 30 distinct warriors to choose from, each with two playstyle-altering weapon types, every victory is a spectacle worthy of the gods.

A variety of online and offline modes offer something for every Legend looking to prove their might in Asgard. Ranked queues, local 1v1 and 2v2, a four-player online free-for-all and online or local free-for-all allow up to eight warriors to take the field at once. Alternate game modes Brawlball, Snowbrawl, Bombsketball and more let the heroes sharpen their skills in new ways.

With a roster of more than 30 Legends, each with distinct two-weapon combinations and fighting styles, every aspiring warrior can find a hero that suits their playstyle.

Grab a horn of mead and prepare to face off against opponents from a different platform in the Grand Tournament of Valhalla.

Brawlhalla is currently available on Android. iOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|s and PC.