Originally posted by Smetrix:

“Survival” is a pretty loose term to use as a description of this game, since one of the major elements of survival is starvation, which cannot happen in Valheim.

I've heard that mentioned before, maybe it was from you. Where did you get that definition? That may be a common element, but it's not a defining characteristic.

Even if it was, just because you can't die in-place due to starvation, food consumption is a key survival element.

Clearly it has all the classic survival elements. You are dumped into a hostile world with nothing. You have to forage to survive (including food). You have to build defenses against the enemies.

They layered biome progression and bosses on top of it, but that doesn't change the underlying survival aspects of the game.