Valheim Crossplay Guide

Learn is Valheim crossplatform and how to activate crossplay.

by Yaroslav Mokliak
UPDATED: Mar 19, 2026

Valheim is getting more players every year, which isn’t that surprising once you try it for a bit. It’s got multiplayer, it runs on PC (Windows, Mac), Xbox, PlayStation, but the obvious question comes up pretty fast - does Valheim crossplay actually work between all that?

For me, it’s always a thing, because I’m on Mac and PS5, so I constantly run into this situation where friends are on completely different platforms. You kinda don’t think about it until you want to play together.

The short answer is yes, Valheim does support crossplay. PC, Xbox, and PlayStation players can join the same servers and play together without too much trouble. It’s not some complicated setup most of the time, but it’s also not perfectly smooth every single time.

In this guide, I’ll go through how it works, what you actually need to enable it, and where things can go a bit wrong (because yeah, they sometimes do).

Is Valheim Cross Platform?

Yes, Valheim supports cross-platform. That means that you can play from any device with your friend on the same server. It supports crossplay between different operating systems like Windows and Mac, as well as crossplay between platforms like PC, Xbox, or PlayStation.

For example, I was playing Valheim on my Macbook, while my friends were playing on Windows.

We also tested the Valheim crossplay between Mac, Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows. We connected to the same server from 3 different devices, and it was working very well.

However, I found some issues on Steam and Reddit about the Valheim crossplay while writing this guide. But I didn’t have any problems with that.

How To Enable Valheim Crossplay?

Activating the Valheim crossplay is very easy. Just follow the steps below:

Go to the Game menu and press “Start Game”
Select the character, press “Start”
Choose the world, and click “Start Server”
After that press “Crossplay”
Set a password for your server

Here you go, you’ve started the server and enabled the crossplay. Now your friends can join your server using a “Join Game” tab.

How To Join the Valheim Crossplatform Server?

If you need to connect to your friend’s server, after you choose the character, open the “Join Game” tab, click “Add Server” and enter the Join Code and password to connect to the server.

Or, if you play in Steam, go to the Valheim main menu, then open the “Friends” list in Stem, right-click on your friend’s account, and choose “Join Game”.

If you want to join the community crossplay server in Valheim, go to the “Join Game” tab, then the “Community” tab. Choose from the servers that have white twisted arrow icons. That means that the server is crossplay.

How to Get the Join Code?

You can find the join code of your server above the menu. It consists of 6 digits and generates automatically every time you start the server.

Common Crossplay Issues and Fixes

Crossplay in Valheim usually works fine, until it suddenly doesn’t. One day you’re joining without issues, the next day the server just doesn’t show up or the join code feels completely useless. It’s rarely something complicated, but the game doesn’t really tell you what’s wrong.

Most of the time, the problem comes down to small mismatches or settings that got overlooked.

Server not showing up: Usually means crossplay isn’t enabled on the host side. Double-check the server settings, it’s easy to miss.
Join code not working: Codes can bug out. Try refreshing the server or generating a new one. Sometimes the old code just stops working.
Can’t connect to server: This is the most often problem with a version issue. If one player hasn’t updated the game, it won’t connect, even if everything else looks fine.
Random disconnects: Not always your fault. Could be server stability, especially with crossplay on. Dedicated servers tend to handle it better.

Quick Things to Check First

veryone is on the same game version
crossplay is enabled on the server
you’re using the correct join code
server is actually online and not restarting

Conclusion

Valheim is a 100% cross platform game, which supports crossplay between different operating systems like Windows and Mac, as well as different platforms like PC and Xbox.

You can activate the crossplay feature in the main menu before you start a server.

Yaroslav Mokliak

CEO | Editor | Content Writer

With over 15 years of playing games and 5 years of writing articles, Yaroslav is a CEO and content creator at HermitGamer. Yaroslav regularly plays video games, creates useful guides, and writes reviews with his opinion on new and old titles. His main goal is to make HermitGamer a platform, where each gamer can find the answers.

Comments