Indie games reach varying degrees of success and popularity across genres. Here are some of the wildest indie successes that (in total) reached tens of millions of fans and made bank.
Among Us
This deception game, released in 2018 by studio Innersloth, reached new heights of popularity in 2020 and 2021. As of July 2021, Among Us has sold well over 15 million copies – 3.2 million of them sold on Nintendo Switch in its first month. The game has also raked in $86 million in revenue since its launch.
There have been numerous updates and new independent game mods like “Town of Us” (Among Us mixed with Town of Salem) have become popular with streamers.
Cuphead
Cuphead is a strategic, challenging platformer game from Studio MDHR. Rounding out Steam’s “Top 20” chart for 2017, Cuphead sold 1.3 million copies for PC. In 2019, the developer tweeted that the total reached 5 million. This indie game also earned $22 million in revenue that first year. Today, that estimate sits at a whopping $32 million in Steam sales. The game is also available on PlayStation, Xbox and more.
Five Nights At Freddy’s
ScottGames’ Five Nights At Freddy’s has spawned six sequels, a book series and a plethora of lore-driven fans. The original game, released in 2014, made an estimated revenue of $22,000 this week in iOS sales alone. While data for the whole franchise is less solid, Steam sales for the games combined value approximately $12.6 million.
This incredibly popular horror game also has a seventh sequel and film adaptation on the way.
Hollow Knight
Released by Team Cherry in 2017, Hollow Knight is a Dark Souls-inspired action-adventure game that saw huge success across platforms. In 2019, the development team released a progress update on the game’s sequel – also mentioning that the game had been purchased and played by 2.8 million people. While the game only costs $15 to download, it has made around $55 million in revenue in the five years since its release.
Untitled Goose Game
Untitled Goose Game from House House gained fame from its adorably chaotic protagonist. According to the publisher, it sold over 1 million copies in three months after its late 2019 launch.
In early 2020, House House also announced that they would donate 1% of future revenues to Australia’s indigenous people through the “Pay the Rent” movement.
Minecraft
Believe it or not, Minecraft started out as an indie game in 2009. It attracted the attention of big buyers as early as 2013, and Minecraft was bought by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014. While it arguably cannot be considered an indie game today, it comes from humble roots. In May 2020, Mojang announced it had officially surpassed 200 million copies sold. And in 2020 alone, Minecraft raked in over $400 million – nearly breaking its record of $500 million in 2018.
There have been numerous updates since its release (including new Story Mode and Dungeons), with more to come.
Fall Guys
Fall Guys – from UK studio Mediatonic – was an unexpected hit in 2020. The battle-royale game became PlayStation Plus’ most downloaded title of all time in its first month and has sold over 11 million copies on Steam. On Steam, Fall Guys debuted as the top-earning game for August 2020, pulling in $185 million in revenue – the highest digital launch since Overwatch.
In early 2021, Mediatonic and Fall Guys were purchased by Activision. That being said, its most remarkable successes came during its indie year.
Anna is a senior at NYU studying Journalism. Her work has been featured in GreenWorldAlliance and the Borgen Project, and she hopes to pursue games journalism into the future.In her free time, she loves playing Left 4 Dead with her 60-year-old father, tearing it up in Just Dance, and unnecessarily reorganizing her decks in Back 4 Blood.
