There’s a nice interview with Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone over on PCGamer this week that includes a fun fact: as of yesterday the $15 Steam darling (which launched less than two weeks ago) had sold more than 425,000 copies across both Steam and Gog.
That’s a remarkable figure for any game, much less a one-man labor of love that took roughly four years to make.
For a fun bit of comparison, consider that Facepunch Studios’ breakout $20 Early Access hit Rust sold about 150,000 copies in its first two weeks (admittedly, back in 2014.) More recently, CD Projekt Red’s massive $60 open-world game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold over 4 million in its first two weeks across PC and console platforms.
“I thought it would be popular with people who were fans of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory, and I thought that would pretty much be it,” Barone told PCGamer. “I never expected it to have such wide appeal. I mean, I’m super happy about it and I’m blown away by the reaction, but I’m surprised too.”