How Stardew Valley Stayed Cream Of The Crop

Stardew Valley is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, February 26, 2025. Below, we examine how it has remained the leader in a genre it helped to revive.

A decade ago this month, indie developer Eric Barone, better known as ConcernedApe, released his debut game: a farm and life sim called Stardew Valley. Heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series, Stardew Valley gives players an idyllic sandbox to grow crops, fight slimes, and interact with a couple dozen NPCs. The game was an immediate hit, selling 1 million copies after only a couple months, and it inspired a wave of cozy farming sims that have dominated the indie gaming scene since. Now, 10 years later, the undisputed best game in this massive genre is … Stardew Valley.

PUBG sparked the battle-royale craze before the throne was firmly usurped by Fortnite. Lethal Company innovated with its extraction-based gameplay, only to be improved upon by REPO and Arc Raiders. Hand of Fate gave way to Slay the Spire and Balatro. Yet after a decade of worthy title challengers, from Coral Island to Sun Haven, Stardew has retained its farming-sim superiority, topping both the critics' lists and sales charts, and shipping a bounty of no less than 50 million copies. It has spawned cookbooks, strategy guides, a board game, and two concert tours. It’s playable on everything from Linux to Teslas. Its appeal stretches beyond the bounds of regular gamers: I know plenty of people whose only game in their Steam account is Stardew. It’s a remarkable tale of resilience, but what makes Stardew so special?