How to Fish vs Stardew Valley: ninth against first in the Fishing tag
Contents
Steam’s Fishing tag holds 596 games. Stardew Valley sits first in it, How to Fish ninth. But fishing in Stardew Valley is one activity among a dozen, while in How to Fish it is the entire point. The comparison shows what a brand-new game looks like next to the long-standing leader of its own tag.
The table
| Metric | How to Fish | Stardew Valley |
|---|---|---|
| Release | 20 August 2026 | 26 February 2016 |
| Days on sale as of 31 Aug 2026 | 11 | 3 839 (about 10.5 years) |
| Developer | Dazed Games | ConcernedApe |
| Steam price (Ukraine region) | 159 UAH | 229 UAH |
| Platforms | Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Co-op | online, up to 8 players | online, LAN and split screen |
| Achievements | 28 | 49 |
| Total reviews | 43 902 | 465 399 |
| Positive share | 94.9% | 98.8% |
| Steam label | Very Positive | Overwhelmingly Positive |
| Steam Cloud | no | yes |
| Remote Play on Phone | no | yes |
| Rank in the Fishing tag catalogue | 9 of 596 | 1 of 596 |
Ten years against eleven days
Stardew Valley launched on 26 February 2016 and has 465 399 reviews after 3 839 days. How to Fish launched on 20 August 2026 and has 43 902 after 11. That is a 10.6x gap on the raw total.
Per day the picture flips: 3991 reviews a day for How to Fish against 121 for Stardew Valley — roughly 33 times faster right now.
That does not mean How to Fish will catch up. We are measuring different phases of a life cycle: ten years of a level tail against one week of a launch spike. The rate comparison is honest only as a snapshot taken on 31 August 2026.
98.8% is a long way up
Stardew Valley sits at 98.8% positive — the highest figure among the twelve most-reviewed games in the Fishing tag. How to Fish is at 94.9%.
Both are high, but the labels differ: Overwhelmingly Positive against Very Positive. By our measurement the boundary between them lies between 94.90% and 95.57%, so How to Fish sits just underneath it.
What Stardew Valley has and How to Fish does not
The gap here is not about quality, it is about services and scope:
- Platforms. Stardew Valley runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. How to Fish is Windows only.
- Kinds of co-op. Stardew Valley’s feature list has online, LAN and shared-screen play. How to Fish has online only.
- Steam Cloud, trading cards, Remote Play on Phone — all present in Stardew Valley, all absent from How to Fish.
- Achievements — 49 against 28.
The other side of the ledger is short: How to Fish is cheaper (159 UAH against 229 UAH, a 1.44x difference), and its eight-player online co-op is the headline mode rather than an extra.
What we are not claiming
We did not measure Stardew Valley’s maximum co-op player count — Steam names the modes but not the number, so we give no number.
We did not compare the games as experiences and assigned no scores. The Fishing tag is all they share, and that is a weak basis for calling them competitors: in Stardew Valley fishing is a mini-game inside a farming sim.
Positions 9 and 1 are our own ordering of the catalogue by the review count in Steam’s tooltip, not an official store ranking. That tooltip shows the English-language, Steam-purchase-only slice, which is why the totals in the table above are higher.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, How to Fish or Stardew Valley?
They are different genres. Stardew Valley is a farming sim where fishing is one activity. How to Fish is a co-op action game about fish.
Which game is cheaper?
How to Fish at 159 UAH against 229 UAH for Stardew Valley. Ukraine region Steam prices as of 31 August 2026.
Do both games have co-op?
Yes. But Stardew Valley also lists LAN and shared-screen play, while How to Fish is online only, for up to 8 players.
Which game scores higher?
Stardew Valley: 98.8% positive against 94.9% for How to Fish.
Does Stardew Valley run on Mac?
Yes, its platform list is Windows, macOS and Linux. How to Fish is Windows only for now.