Stardew Valley 1.6 Update Has 8-Player Multiplayer, New Festivals

Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone offered an update on multiplayer and festivals appearing in Stardew Valley 1.6. Once the patch arrives, people will be able to have up to eight people playing at once. We already knew at least one festival would be present, but the latest reveal confirms three, with one being a major one. Villagers will change to suit the season. Also, unspecified “late-game” additions will be present.

Here’s the full list of additions that Barone shared on social media. The 8-player multiplayer option for Stardew Valley will apparently only be for PCs. The festivals all showed up under the universal comment section. 

• A new major festival
• Two new mini festivals
• New late-game content, which expands on each of the skill areas.
• New items and crafting recipes.
• Jojo alternatives to some of the end-game quests.
• 100+ new lines of dialogue.
• Winter outfits for the villagers.
• New type of reward for completing billboard requests
• (PC) support for 8-player multiplayer
• Many small additions and adjustments
• New farm type
• New secrets & more

Currently, Stardew Valley multiplayer supports four people.

While there’s no update on when the 1.6 update will appear and we already heard about the festivals, we do know about other Stardew Valley items on the way. Pre-orders for the board game opened again in August 2023. An official cookbook will also show up in 2024.

Stardew Valley is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PCs, mobile devices, and the PlayStation Vita, and the 1.6 update is in development.