Who Is The Best Spouse in Stardew Valley?

I asked everyone I could reach to tell me a little about their marriage candidate opinions. I ended up getting over 1500 results, with lots of fantastic insights. This video summarizes some of the key data, and some frequent comments that I received!

00:00 Intro
00:50 Overview of the Survey
01:20 Rank the Bachelors
03:04 Rank the Bachelorettes.
04:31 Favorite, Least Favorite, and First Marriage
07:49 Which Giftable Villager Would You Marry
09:50 How Old Are You? Is your identity represented?
12:34 Bachelors and Bachelorettes % Breakdown
14:32 Ace Stats
15:45 Bi Stats
16:36 Heterosexual Stats
17:40 Homosexual Stats
18:25 Other and Pan Stats
18:58 Gender and Sexuality Demographics
23:09 Your Comments
24:08 Other Takeaways

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#StardewValley #Stardew

[loubailing]

I married Elliot because in my game he could move when time was paused and I thought that was a Giga Chad move.

[Occhii_Docchii]

If Sebastian and Leah saw how much they’re dominating Leah would make an art piece of appreciation and Seb would straight up ugly cry

[marioruiz]

I bet half of Leah's fans mistook her with Robin and after finding out Robin is already married went along with it

[jbullforg]

I chose my first spouse by looking on the wiki at their attached room. Turns out Penny's was the nicest, so I married her.

[TumblinWeeds]

Shane’s marriage story is actually so sad. So many people marry him after feeling they’ve made a real difference in his life, only to realize he’s no different at all.

[pennynifiachra]

Leah was my first marriage candidate, not only because she's super down-to-earth, but because I thought I would get her house. Imagine my disappointment when she moved into mine instead 😅

[bragny]

I think one issue with marrying Shane, that goes beyond the room, is that he has such an interesting character arc, but marrying seems to almost destroy it and push him back into his old ways 😅 He drinks again, is a slob etc.
So even if you do care about Shane you are better of not marrying him.

[PharmDACR]

As a data nerd, I absolutely love this.

I’m 51, and would love a couple of older marriage candidates. I married Harvey, as I’m a pharmacist and so get where he’s coming from when it comes to job stress, but also because he’s the closest in age to me. The thing is, I see him as early 40s at most, so still ten years my junior. Give me some middle-aged candidates, CA! Heck, let me marry Willy or Gus. Either one is husband material.

Then again, I could just embrace the role of SV’s resident cougar.

[maigistr]

i don't think coded sexuality is necessarily a good thing. people say they want it but then a candidate will come out as gay or straight and people will be upset if they cannot date them because of their character's gender. having them be "playersexual" is the best on a gameplay standpoint as everyone is allowed to date the marriage candidate they want regardless of gender. imagine if leah was only dateable if you were a male character, lesbians and alike would hate it. if she was only dateable if you were a female character, straight males and alike would hate it. i think candidate sexuality needs to be ambiguous so that it brings more enjoyment to the playerbase as a whole rather than catering to one side. that one side may feel more represented but it's at a loss of the other side. the compromise is having them all be dateable no matter what and i think it's good to stay that way.

[Microondah]

I don't know how other people felt about Alex' story, but as a gay man, his whole transition from "no homo bro" to "okay maybe a bit homo" to "you're the love of my life" is that 5-star fanfic levels of content that makes me thrive. I couldn't be happier that I went for the hot jock for my first marriage and wasn't disappointed.

[The_Glitchy_Fox]

Emily is underrated. She sends you on a drug trip with a dance in one of her private quests. wild

[Kizaco]

“Sebastian is absolutely loved”
As he should be

[HEATHERS-]

Wholesome fact: I romanced shane with pizza instead of beer to “help” with his alcohol issues

Edit: wow thanks for all the- YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA SAY THANKS FOR ALL THE LIKES JK. IMA SAY IT LIKE AN OLD ENGLISHMAN

thankest youth forth alth thee favors.

[funnymonk]

What I found somewhat interesting was that despite Shane not being romanceable at launch, he was still a consistant first marriage.

[irmaostervall]

I like the fact that the marriage candidates’ sexualities aren’t hard coded, though I totally get where people who would like them to be are coming from. I think one thing that could help is to have more representation of other sexualities amongst the couples that already exist in Pelican Town, because then we would get more deliberate and explicit representation but not at the cost of limiting the marriage candidates available to the player.

[rude_prunes]

I will always be proud of marrying Haley and I will stand by the fact that she's the best marriage candidate. No one gives her a chance because she is pretty stuck-up when you first meet her, which I can understand, but sometimes just showing others kindness, even if they don't deserve it, is worth it. Haley becomes one of the sweetest, caring, and most wonderful spouses that I genuinely love interacting with every day, even though we've been married for years. In conclusion, people need to give Haley a chance

[auroraborealis]

I'm a big Elliott fan, so it was gratifying to see his graph. So, so many people think he's very hated or just a really average marriage candidate in regards to his likeability, but the truth is that he's polarizing. And by stereotyping Elliott as fairly disliked, Elliott fans get forgotten. So it was nice to see the data presented this way.

[halfatrex]

It would be interesting to have a "why do you love/hate x marriage canidate" fill in the blank. Because the hated/loved canidates have very strong reactions and it would just be interesting to see if there’s a common theme with them.

[lilypad]

I think maru is honestly underrated just because of how far away she is. You don't see her all that much in a normal playthrough of the game, but I think she would be a bit more popular if you did

[unstable]

I'm really surprised with how many people hate Alex.
He has one of the most engaging stories, and you get to see him change for the better
While I do understand that he might not be your favorite, his story makes him in my top 3 best spouses easily.