In four years time, Eric Barone's charming pixellated farming sim has become a titan in the games industry, conquering other indies on sales charts and even beating some AAA games too.
Stardew Valley has sold over 10 million copies across its six available platforms, making it one of the most successful indie titles in gaming. The figure was nonchalantly added to the game's presskit page: "Since release, the game has sold over 10 million copies worldwide."
These numbers are absolutely massive for any game, whether it be an independent creation like Barone's or a high-budget AAA RPG like Final Fantasy XV (yes, Stardew Valley beat FFXV's sales and even Battlefield V's). Sure it helps that Stardew Valley is sold on practically every device you can play games on, including Switch, PC, consoles, and mobile phones, but the game's Harvest Moon-esque charm has enraptured and engaged millions worldwide.
Here's a random list of all the games Stardew Valley beat in terms of sales, including both indies and AAA hits:
- Splatoon 2 - 9.28 million
- FFX - 9.25 million
- FF15 - 8.9 million
- FF8 - 8.8 million
- FF13 - 7.7 million
- Resident Evil 5 - 7.5 million
- Battlefield V - 7.3 million (as of February 2019)
- Cuphead - 5 million (as of September 2019)
- Enter The Gungeon - 3 million (as of January 2020)
- Hollow Knight - 2.8 million (as of February 2019)
- Shovel Knight - 2.65 million (as of September 2019)
- Dead Cells - 2.4 million (as of September 2019)
- Untitled Goose Game - 1 million +
For Eric Barone, who had spent years in near-solitude obsessively coding, iterating on, and crafting Stardew Valley ahead of release, hard work has paid off big time. Barone has reaped a fruitful harvest with one of the best-selling indies of our time.