Even those of you who don’t play Stardew Valley will almost certainly be aware that the big 1.6 update went live yesterday. It adds a ton of new content to the game, seemingly well worth the wait. As such, it will surprise exactly zero people to learn that this has resulted in a massive boost in the game’s popularity.
As noted by SteamDB, Stardew Valley‘s new patch has led to a jump in concurrent players on Steam. The screenshot from the Twitter/X post below shows it peaked at 102,774 players, setting a new record for the game. However, even this is outdated, as that figure has since risen to 146,159, according to the most recent data.
It’s also jumped a pretty hefty 90 places on Steam, where it’s currently sitting at number nine on the Top Sellers list. This will most likely change as time goes on, but one can imagine Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone will be waking up today as a rather happy developer.
Console and mobile patches coming soon
As for what version 1.6 actually contains, it’s a seriously humongous list of changes, new editions, bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and the lot. You’re honestly best off checking out the changelog on the Stardew Valley website, but be prepared to get a bit of soreness from all that scrolling. It’s a huge update, is what I’m saying.
Examples of some of the new features include (but are definitely not limited to): a new festival, a new farm type, the ability to add multiple pets, winter outfits for NPCs, a bookseller who “comes to town twice a season,” and a shed load more.
Unfortunately, the update is only available on PC for now. Barone has said Xbox is “incoming soon,” so those of us who play on console and iOS/Android will need to wait a little bit longer.
