Stardew Valley has beaten its all-time player count record after the 1.6 update went live for PC.
Stardew Valley is a single-player or multiplayer farming simulation game developed and published by Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. The game has been around since 2016 and is already around eight years old. Despite this, many players continuously enjoy the game on different platforms.
In Stardew Valley, players could become farmers as they inherit their grandfather’s farm and start a new life. It’s open-ended, with no concrete ending, allowing players to craft their story continuously. They could grow crops, tend to their animals, socialize with the townsfolk, and more.
The game just received its latest 1.6 update for the PC, which includes many quality-of-life changes, new features, content, and more. Following the arrival of this long-awaited update, Stardew Valley broke its own all-time player count record.
At the time of writing, more than 145,000 players are experiencing the 1.6 update on Steam (per Steam’s Most Played charts). The update has a lot of new content, such as the ability to have multiple pets and a new farm where players could start a new playthrough. It also contains many fixes, balance changes, and multiplayer changes, allowing up to 8 players on PC.
This resulted in Stardew Valley placing in the platform’s top five in the Most Played category. This may be a mix of old and new players getting into the game, as there’s also an ongoing sale.
Before the 1.6 update, the game peaked at around 89,000 to 94,000 from December 2020 to January 2021. This was also when Stardew Valley released one of its biggest updates, version 1.5, which included a new region called Ginger Island in the Fern Islands and Leo, a new NPC.
Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update is currently only available for PC, Mac, and Linux on Steam and GOG. The update hasn’t come to the Xbox PC Game Pass, as ConcernedApe stated “Currently it’s available on Steam & GOG, Gamepass is incoming soon, sorry about that. Waiting for a new build to go through.”
You could enjoy Stardew Valley’s content by creating a new save file and playing on the new farm, or you could continue with your old one. Either way, you decide how to experience the new content and fixes!