If there’s anything Stardew Valley fans want, it’s more Stardew — and that’s now the case for anyone playing the cozy life sim on iOS or Android.
The game is available on just about every platform out there (personally I play it on the Nintendo Switch, which is perfect), but Stardew’s mobile fans were left waiting for a major content update that hit consoles back in 2021. Over the weekend, Stardew Valley patch 1.5 rolled out for the game’s Android and iOS ports, bringing a ton of new stuff to do with it.
The update is no small thing. If you haven’t played yet, fair warning that there are probably a few spoilers in here if you like to discover the quaint game world’s secrets organically.
Patch 1.5 adds a lot, but some of the most notable additions are a new beach farm layout, a slew of new NPCs and enemies, ostriches (because ostriches) and a whole new location — Ginger Island. The full list of new 1.5 content can be found here, but why spoil it for yourself?
This last content push is likely it for the game, which has sold more than 20 million copies since launching in 2016. Stardew Valley’s creator Eric Barone is already at work on Haunted Chocolatier, his next hit indie game-to-be. There’s no expected release date yet, but Barone started working on the game back in 2020, so a launch in late 2023 or some time in 2024 might not be off the table.
Something interesting that sets Stardew’s success apart from a lot of other hit games is that its hype has only snowballed over the years: In 2022, years after its launch, the game was selling faster than it did closer to its debut. That’s likely due to the massive amount of word-of-mouth love out there for Stardew’s charming world and the impressive depth it offers for a game that’s ostensibly a farming sim.
