Stardew Valley is now Steam’s highest-rated game
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) July 9, 2025
Portal 2 held the top spot for 14 years pic.twitter.com/8LlwI6Zx8W
The cozy farming game has taken the top spot with an 8.87 review score, narrowly surpassing the Portal sequel: https://www.dexerto.com/stardew-valley/stardew-valley-dethrones-valve-classic-as-steams-top-rated-game-3224023/
Didn't Terraria have the top spot a few years ago? Portal 2 did not have it throughout the full 14 years
The article's basing this claim from rankings on some random-ass website "steam250.com" (which, having a quick browse around, has the cheek to put publicly available data like IsThereAnyDeal price data behind a fucking paywall) that has its own rating system out of 10. Not that I expected anything else when I saw it was from Dexerto, but it's a bullshit clickbait story.
its dexerto. They barely put any effort to fact check anything. But thats just my opinion
They've done even less than that. They're just rehashing articles from the previous couple of days that have been reporting this. And all those articles? They're just rehashing a reddit submission. And that reddit submission even had comments pointing out it's just some 3rd party website that has it's own algorithm for it's rating system that they don't reveal, meaning it's really not a reliable source.
Absolutely zero-effort reporting.
Ranking systems are often subjective, and different sites will weigh reviews differently. Stardew's community impact is undeniable, even if the stats are a bit murky. It’s all about perspective.
Uhh no. If you are ranking something it's by the numbers. Otherwise it's just a review isn't it.
I love Portal. I love Stardew Valley. I love Terraria. Case closed.
That's interesting. I honestly thought the highest rated one was Terraria.
That game is a drug.
The time when I pulled two all-nighters playing several years ago lives rent free in my head
The only person I’m scared my wife would leave me for is ConcernedApe. That’s how good Stardew is. It’s a crossover hit!
PORTAL 2 IS 14 FUCKING YEARS OLD!??!
Have you been cryogenically frozen? The game is ancient at this point.
Sigh...so am I I suppose.
Right? I remember some of the youtubers i watched playing it back in the day aren’t even around anymore.
Portal 2 is 14 years old?!
Wow that's cool. I always thought factorio had the highest spot over portal 2.
My whole life my whole fucking life
What's so special about that game?
I would like to know.
I can't give a reasonable explanation. It was on sale a few years ago and i liked the art, so i bought it. I've put thousands of hours into it. There's a lot to it. You farm yes but also combat, fishing, crafting. Plus the music is top notch although some of it I'm not a huge fan of. Then there's a modding community that adds even more content.
It's not everyone's type of game though
The best farming game you can ask for. It has lots of content and the most amazing part about it is like 75-80% of the game was made by a single developer.
That developer is also working on another game called Haunted Chocolatier, which will be even larger than Stardew and that game was announced 3 years ago. The developer is an incredibly nice person and I bet you haven't seen nicer developers than him
Sounds very intresting
made by 1 guy from the ground up. Was great on release and got better over time, esp with co-op. Great modding scene, super chill game to play for what it offers. It's also dirt cheap
It was so good esp at the time it came out that it spawned a trend of stradew clones, that were either lack luster in comparison or more expensive.
In retrospect, it's been almost 10 years now and maybe the game is not that impressive, but it's also the cheapest one out there that goes on sale for even less, and the only game cheaper than that worth it's value is terraria.
I only ever did 1 playthrough in full, without doing any of the new content for like 3~ish updates worth, and I have 130 hours in it.
Everything? It’s a love letter to old harvest moon games but cranks everything up to 11. There’s relationship sim, farming sim, exploration, dungeon crawling and combat. Lots of stuff to do. And it’s made by 1 guy that everyone respects (Eric Barone)
Sounds kind of interesting
I might get some flack for it but it's just a chore simulator with nice pixel graphics.
nothing, some genius learned to market "boring" as "cozy". I consider portal 2, on the contrary, one of the best games of all time, suitable for all kinds of people to play
Some of us after a long stressful day just want a chill game to relax with. What’s wrong g with that?
nothing, but I strongly believe stardew valley to be absolute garbage
Fine to have an oppinion, but I'd ask myself where that kind of hatred towards an inoffensive farming game that most pther people genuinely love comes from.
well I don't spend my day hating this game, so there is nothing to accuse me of. the game is just boring garbage with gutted to shreds mechanics and I have zero reasons to comply with other people opinions
You are so edgy and cool 😎
I'm with you brother. Boring as hell. Can't understand the hype but... whatever.
Funny thing is I really liked one of its "parody knock offs" - Graveyard Simulator. That one had a sense of progression and was funny, not with dialogues made for 5 year olds who play Animal Crossing
Didn't we see the same news a few weeks ago about Balatro taking the Steam highest-rated game spot?
These words you heard are from steam250.com, which is ass and is better to use SteamDB.
According to steamdb, nothing ever surpassed portal 2, although, stardew is slowly crawling to it
I also thought Hades held that spot for a while.
Game is so good but it's too damn cozy haha. I get sleepy when I play cause I'm so relaxed haha.
You're not efficient enough mate
Do everything as fast as possible and if turn into a non-stop stress simulator pretty quickly
Both games have a 98% rating, meanwhile there's other games with 99%+ ratings, so how's this accurate? Genuine question.
An 98% rating with 500.000 reviews is "worth" more than a 99% rating with 5.000 reviews
How can I get into this more?! I found it annoying having to rush to bed all the time
Once you are through the early game you can get a horse and zoom around. As the game progresses you can unlock more ways to get home easier. But sprinting home at 1:40 am and diving into bed is part of the fun.
It's a great game! Made with care by the Dev...
Portal 2: I bent time and space for 14 years.
Stardew Valley: I gave everyone emotional support and let them farm.
Honestly? Both are peak.
Portal 2 is such a good game. It's certainly in my top 10 of all time.
Go use Steam DB instead
Portal 2 still top
And frankly, deservedly so. Nothing bad to say about Stardew Valley, but Portal 2 is a masterpiece and it will remain a classic for decades to come.
also they both close at each other they bot at like 98% but Portal 2 has a few more 0.XX%
I thought "A short hike" is highest rated steam game
14 years and still no portal 3
Really need to get into it
Whats even more impressive is theres a vr mod to play Portal 2 and its amazing! Not bad for a 14 year old game.
I've not played stardew but portal 2 is something very rare, it's a game I'd describe as "perfect" i can think of nothing wrong with it whatsoever. Even games I personally prefer have some minor issues somewhere but nothing for portal 2.
Well deserved. I only have 400 hours in but my wife has over 800. Only started the game because I had a trash computer but it really surprised me
I bought Stardew Valley recently even though it really didn’t seem like it would be my sort of game. It just got so much praise and people had stories where they couldn’t quite explain why they loved it so much, but they sunk hundreds of hours into it.
So I have it a go and…
Nope, I was right the first time. That game is not for me. Im glad people love it but I honestly don’t know what they’re getting out of it. It just felt like a hundred different tedious tasks all mashed together, but not one of them was fun to me. It felt like work.
Which is saying something, because I’ve got about fifty hours in Euro Truck simulator 2, and no, I can’t explain why either.
Have had the game for years and have tried playing many times but it never sticks. I like other farming/survival games, not sure why I can't get into SV.
Only cause minecraft isn’t on steam.
dude i just bought both and i only gave stardew valley a good review i am taking fulll responsibility for this development
They're both 98% Overwhelmingly positive based on Steam Reviews.
One is a game that has been out for a long time, the other is a current game that is still getting major content updates.
It makes sense that it could eek a few tenths of percent above Portal 2.
Good for them, my wife loves Stardew Valley, but this 'article' is just fluff.
(just joking I love both of the games)
Bold move going for a Sean Dyche meme on a pc gaming subreddit, I think they've taken you seriously haha
did people really think I am one of those anti woke people? lmao
For anyone looking at this thinking "I loved Stardew. I should hop back in", try installing a few top ranked mods from NexusMods if you do. There are some great mods for QoL and/or content. I had a blast on my third go at the game using a handful of the 'top downloaded' QoL mods that allowed me to progress farther before the inevitable crash, burn and dropping the game again.
It was even better playing with mods on Steam Deck on the couch. Talk about addiction.
The battle of mid
They’re using steam250, which is inaccurate. SteamDB still says Portal 2 is higher.
SteamDB is Steam propaganda...
/joke
Who makes portal 2?
Who controls SteamDB?
Who fogs up my mirrors when I’m in the shower?
It’s all connected man
And who made Steve Gutenberg a star?
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
xPaw fogs up your mirrors when you're in the shower?
This is my first time hearing about steam250