8 years after launch, Stardew Valley is still breaking records with a new peak concurrent player count just hours after the 1.6 update release

Following the 1.6 update, more people are playing Stardew Valley on Steam than ever before, breaking records eight years after its initial release.

On March 19, Stardew Valley fans finally got what they've been waiting for - the Stardew Valley 1.6 update. There's been a lot of speculation over the last few months about what exactly developer ConcernedApe was planning for the update but it's turned out to be bigger than anyone was anticipating. 

You can find the full patch notes here, but to give you an idea of the kind of things fans are now getting to experience, we've got: Three new festivals, a 'mastery' system, a new farm type, new NPC dialogue, new crops, more pet types, a ton of new items, new achievements, the ability to drink mayonnaise, and so much more. It's basically given the farming sim a new lease of life.

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All of this new content has encouraged players to get back to tending to their farms as Stardew Valley's player count has gone through the roof very quickly after the update's launch. According to SteamDB, Stardew Valley reached a new peak concurrent player count on Steam just a few hours after the bulky update. 

Before this, the farming sim had a player count that ranged between 30,000 - 50,000, though this very quickly jumped up at around 6pm GMT / 11am PT / 2pm ET to roughly 102,000 players then 130,000, and eventually over 145,000. Right now, Stardew Valley has a peak player count of 146,159. It's worth remembering that the 1.6 update is currently only available on PC with consoles following suit soon.

It's not just ConcernedApe that's been working hard on the 1.6 update. Following the update's release, it was revealed that the creator of Stardew Valley's best mod worked with Eric Barone on update 1.6, and has already released a compatibility patch. A few weeks ago, the developer behind Stardew Valley Expanded reassured its fans that the mod won't affect the upcoming update - and now we know why. 

If you're worried that this is the game's last big content overhaul; Stardew Valley's creator doesn't think he'll ever "officially close the book" on the farming sim.