"Bad" games that are incredibly successful

[Legend]

Stardew Valley is on gamepass so I finally tried it. Really crazy that this blew up so much.

I don't doubt that millions of people love it, but it's just such a simple and slow game. I didn't expect it to be such a standard 2D tile game. I expected it to be more like undertale where really quickly you can tell that the game is special.

[the-pi-guy]

I'm sure some people feel that way about puzzle games.  

I still haven't played Stardew Valley.

But I really should, because I've put at least hundreds of hours into similar games.

[Legend]

I'm sure some people feel that way about puzzle games.  

I still haven't played Stardew Valley.

But I really should, because I've put at least hundreds of hours into similar games.

I can't think of too many "bad" puzzle games that sold millions. Stephen's Sausage Roll might be the closest to one, it just looks like a basic puzzle game and has nothing cool early on, but who besides puzzle nerds have even heard about it?

[the-pi-guy]

I was just kind of being sassy. I'm sure plenty of people view games like The Witness as being slow, and maybe simple if they've only played a little bit of it. (Though I'm sure Stardew Valley is far and away more successful than probably 99% of all puzzle games.)

I'm more skeptical about your usage of bad. I doubt Stardew Valley is even a "bad" game.

[Legend]

I was just kind of being sassy. I'm sure plenty of people view games like The Witness as being slow, and maybe simple if they've only played a little bit of it. (Though I'm sure Stardew Valley is far and away more successful than probably 99% of all puzzle games.)

I'm more skeptical about your usage of bad. I doubt Stardew Valley is even a "bad" game.

No lol Stardew Valley feels like a run of the mill half baked free game you can find online, at least for the first ~hour.

I'm using bad in quotes because obviously it eventually resonates with people but I was not prepared for it to be so harsh and unwelcoming. I've never seen any footage of it, just the logo and a random screenshot here and there.

"It gets good eventually" is pretty common but this is more like a good game masquerading as a bad game.