Stardew Valley vs Loop Hero
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Stardew Valley
Cultivate a new life in this open-ended farming RPG. Build your dream farm, raise animals, grow crops, and explore mysterious caves. Customize your farmer, settle down, and become part of a vibrant community.
- Build and customize your farm
- Raise animals and grow crops
- Explore caves and battle monsters
- Develop relationships and start a family
- Participate in festivals and quests
- Fishing and foraging activities
- Mobile-specific controls and auto-save
Read full descriptionHide full description
Move to the countryside, and cultivate a new life in this award-winning open-ended farming RPG! With over 50+ hours of gameplay content and new Mobile-specific features, such as auto-save and multiple controls options. **Winner of the Golden Joysticks' Breakthrough Award** **Nominee of Game of the Year 2017 - BAFTA Games Awards** --- BUILD THE FARM OF YOUR DREAMS: ■ Turn your overgrown fields into a lively and bountiful farm ■ Raise and breed happy animals, grow a variety of seasonal crops and design your farm, your way ■ Customize your farmer and home! With hundreds of options to choose from ■ Settle down and start a family with 12 potential marriage candidates ■ Become part of the community by taking part in seasonal festivals and villager quests ■ Explore vast, mysterious caves, encountering dangerous monsters and valuable treasure ■ Spend a relaxing afternoon at one of the local fishing spots or go crabbing by the seaside ■ Forage, grow crops and produce artisan goods to cook up as a delicious meal ■ Rebuilt for touch-screen gameplay on iOS with mobile-specific features, such as auto-select to toggle quickly between your farming tools and auto-attack to swiftly take down fiendish monsters in the mines ■ Continue farming from where you last left off with auto-save (even if you close the app!) ■ Play the game your way with multiple controls options, such as touch-screen and virtual joystick ■ Newly Updated Single Player Content - Including new town upgrades, dating events, crops, fishing ponds, hats, clothing, and new pets! Plus more to be discovered... --- “The best version of Stardew Valley is the one you have with you … This game is absolutely incredible, and will not disappoint.” - TouchArcade "Stardew Valley beautifully combines farm simulation with RPG elements to create an intriguing, absorbing rural world." - IGN “Far more than just a farming game... filled with seemingly endless content and heart.” Giant Bomb "Village life has never been so accessible and satisfying" - The Telegraph “Stardew Valley has been the most rich and heartwarming experience I’ve had in a game in years.” CG Magazine --- Note: Features new 1.6 update story content, multiplayer functionality not supported. No in-app purchases.
Loop Hero
Embark on a roguelike RPG adventure where you strategically place cards to create enemy encounters, buildings, and terrain. Equip your hero with powerful loot, expand your camp, and unlock new classes and cards to break an endless cycle of despair and save a forgotten world.
- Randomly generated expedition loops
- Strategic card placement for trials
- Loot collection for hero progression
- Camp expansion and reconstruction
- Unlockable classes and cards
- Retro pixel art dark fantasy story
Read full descriptionHide full description
*Try Loop Hero for free and unlock the full game for the whole adventure!* The Lich has thrown the world into a timeless loop and plunged its inhabitants into never ending chaos. In this roguelike RPG, wield an expanding deck of mystical cards to place enemies, buildings, and terrain along each unique expedition loop for the brave hero. Recover and equip powerful loot for each class of hero for their battles and expand the survivors' camp to reinforce each adventure through the loop. Unlock new classes, new cards, and devious guardians on your quest to shatter the endless cycle of despair. FEATURES - Explore an endless number of paths: bring your hero on randomly generated loops and never experience the same run twice. - Shape your expeditions into darkness: build your deck and place your cards to script your hero’s trials and tribulations. - Loot as you loop to rebuild the world: recover your memories as you collect equipment and resources to become stronger, reconstruct your camp and get your reality back. - Plunge into a gloomy universe: discover a melancholic dark fantasy story told through a retro pixel art direction and recollect the memories of this world. - Break the cycle: triumph over mighty bosses to free the world from the Lich’s neverending time loop. CAREFULLY REDESIGNED FOR MOBILE - Revamped interface – exclusive mobile UI with complete touch control - Game Center achievements - Cloud Save – Share your progress between iOS devices - Compatible with MFi controllers - iPhone 15 Optimization (including Pro Max)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Loop Hero at Free against Stardew Valley's $4.99. Stardew Valley's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 days). On rating, review sentiment, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Loop Hero is free to download; Stardew Valley costs $4.99 up front. Loop Hero sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Stardew Valley asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Stardew Valley against 4.9 for Loop Hero. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Stardew Valley has 64K ratings behind it against 3.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of Stardew Valley's written reviews are positive against 75% of Loop Hero's.
Stardew Valley ships an update every 3 days, Loop Hero every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Stardew Valley | Loop Hero |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (64K ratings) | 4.9 (3.9K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.6% of reviews | 74.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 64K — better | 3.9K |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #1 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 442 MB | 213 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | ConcernedApe | Playdigious |
Customer experience
Stardew Valley
Loop Hero
User reviews
Stardew Valley
From 64K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive and fun
- 👍 Engaging storylines
- 🌟 Beautiful game
- 🎮 Great gameplay
- 🕹️ Relaxing and calming
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🔍 Difficult to find/catch fish
- 🎮 Challenging controls, especially for combat
- 🔁 Repetitive dialogue/events
- 🔧 Bugs with furniture placement and interactions
Loop Hero
From 3.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Excellent mechanics
- 👍 Great replayability
- 👍 Charming graphics
- 👍 Unique and enjoyable experience
- 👍 Smooth gameplay
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sound doesn't work
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Unresponsive after certain actions
- 🐛 Difficulty reading small text
- 🐛 Accidental card placement
Bugs and requests
Stardew Valley
Reported bugs
5 issues- Fishing rod sound bug
- Sewer key cutscene not triggering
- Furniture/building placement issues
- Inventory/interaction bugs
- Crashing when entering certain areas
Requested features
6 requests- Multiplayer support
- More NPC interactions and relationships
- Ability to grow up/customize children
- Joystick/controller support
- More end-game content and challenges
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Ability to move/delete certain furniture items
Loop Hero
Reported bugs
3 issues- Game crashes after defeating first boss
- Unplayable after initial progress
- Inability to progress past trial version
Requested features
4 requests- Portrait mode
- More classes/build diversity
- Improved UI/overlay customization
- Chinese language support
In-app purchases
Stardew Valley
No in-app purchases
Loop Hero
- Unlock Full Game$6.99
Questions
Is Stardew Valley free?
Is Loop Hero free?
Which has better reviews, Stardew Valley or Loop Hero?
Do Stardew Valley or Loop Hero have ads?
Which is updated more often, Stardew Valley or Loop Hero?
Other comparisons















