Comparison

Stardew Valley vs Loop Hero

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read 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.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read 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

Stardew Valley4 screens
Loop Hero4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Stardew Valley versus Loop Hero: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStardew ValleyLoop Hero
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (64K ratings)4.9 (3.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.6% of reviews74.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings64K — better3.9K
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size442 MB213 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperConcernedApePlaydigious

Customer experience

Stardew Valley

All ratings63,524 ratings
Positive95.6%
Neutral1.7%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews2,754 reviews
Positive73.6%
Neutral10.3%
Negative16.1%

Loop Hero

All ratings3,814 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral0.7%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews287 reviews
Positive74.9%
Neutral6.6%
Negative18.5%

User reviews

Stardew Valley

From 64K App Store ratings

What 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 ratings

What 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 more
  • 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

None

Stardew Valley

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Loop Hero

One-time1
  • Unlock Full Game$6.99

Questions

Is Stardew Valley free?
Stardew Valley costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Loop Hero free?
Loop Hero is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Stardew Valley or Loop Hero?
Loop Hero is rated higher. Stardew Valley averages 4.8 out of 5 from 64K ratings, while Loop Hero averages 4.9 from 3.9K ratings.
Do Stardew Valley or Loop Hero have ads?
Neither Stardew Valley nor Loop Hero shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Stardew Valley or Loop Hero?
Stardew Valley ships an update every 3 days, and Loop Hero every 10 days. Most recently, Stardew Valley was updated on October 3, 2026 and Loop Hero on October 1, 2026.

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