Stardew Valley breaks Steam record as players flock back following new update

The 1.6 update for Stardew Valley has caused a massive spike of interest, resulting in a new record Steam concurrent player count.

The previous peak was set back in January 2021 with around 95,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. Now that's leapt to over 146,000 players.

It's also now inside the Steam store top 10 top sellers, aided by a 20 percent discount – it's available for just £8.79.

The new peak isn't necessarily a surprise. Stardew Valley first released back in 2016 and has gained a huge following in the years since. By May 2022 it had sold over 20m copies.

Update 1.6 is the first major update since December 2020 and has galvanized the farming sim's community, leading to the new peak. It's available now on PC (Steam, GOG), with consoles to follow.

The update was teased in June 2022 and in the lead up to release this past week, creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has been releasing singular patch notes each day.

New features include a major new festival, new items and crafting recipes, a new farm type and more. Perhaps more importantly, there are now hats for pet cats and dogs, plus players can drink mayonnaise.

There's no better time to jump into Stardew Valley, then.

A further patch, 1.6.1, is also “imminent”, which is set to fix a handful of bugs.

And if you're using mods already, plenty have already been updated for the new version.

In a previous Q&A, Barone wouldn't be drawn on whether a 1.7 update would be on the way, but never say never?

It's likely his priorities will now shift to next game Haunted Chocolatier, which is still without a release date.