Game developers struggle with low sales numbers
Multiple indie game creators express concern about limited sales, with one mentioning only five purchases during a Steam sale. This highlights the challenges of visibility and monetization for independent game development.
SOURCES (60)
“It would be funny if it wasn't so sad :/ What's the point of developing anything if you'll be not just ripped off but beaten to the punch. Are these people not ashamed? submitted by /u/thehighshibe [link] [comments]”
“Every day on indie dev subs, I read postmortem after postmortem about one "failed" game or another. And they think they failed because they did not make 100k sales on launch day. Indie devs do not have to follow the same churn and burn formula that large companies do. You actually DO NOT have to release a game every 3-6 months. You also do not have the same overhead. You do not have to cover $100k in payroll every month, 10k in office rent, 50k in insurance, 10k in electricity, 5k in s”
“It has been a year and a half since me and two others quit our jobs and started working on Flipping Is Hard, and now only 3 weeks are left until the game is out in the wild... (It's a rage game about Flippy, an old brick phone who has to flip his way through the Trashlands to get back to his boy, Jeff.) It was, for sure, the dumbest thing we could do, but a dream is a dream, and if there's any kind of possibility to follow it, I suppose that possibility has to be taken. Of course, we had”
“Our 2023 game sold 4,670 copies on day one of a 90% off sale, then 62,771 on day three. Here's what changed Last weekend we put SOS OPS! at 90% off and released a new DLC, Overbooked, a parody of Dear Passenger. Day one was just the sale: 4,670 copies. On day two we started a short-form creator campaign on TikTok, Reels and Shorts through Trapster.gg . A few videos took off within hours. Day two ended at 28,035 copies, and day three at 62,771. We also hit a new all-time CCU peak of 6,761, hi”
“It has been a year and a half since me and two others quit our jobs and started working on Flipping Is Hard, and now only 3 weeks are left until the game is out in the wild... It was, for sure, the dumbest thing we could do, but a dream is a dream, and if there's any kind of possibility to follow it, I suppose that possibility has to be taken. Of course, we had some savings and later managed to secure a bit of funding from a governmental program, but that is going to be enough just until the”
“A few days ago I posted here about my paid mobile game falling to roughly one sale a day after more than two years of updates. The responses helped me look at the situation a little less emotionally. A lot of people said that I had supported the game long enough, that existing players weren’t owed free content forever, and that it might simply be time to move on. I’m not quite ready to do that yet. Before deciding what comes next, I went back through the App Store and Google Play reports to see”
“Well done. People always fixate on hitting the $1,000 goal and overlook what a huge milestone it is just to cover costs and break even.”
“I'm not affiliated with them. Just promoting a resource to support Indie Game Developers. submitted by /u/thehumanplayer [link] [comments]”
“Hi Everyone, I'm Laurent, a solo dev. I didn't quit my job to dev my game, and neither should you. The Steam numbers of 2025/Q1 2026 are brutal, 90% did make barely 100 reviews. I believe all indies are in the same pool. If we're lucky enough to be the 1 out of 10, we should be grateful, and stay humble when we look at the other 9 and tell them: "Bro, success might come or it might not. Either way, don't quit your day job!" With that said, my steam page for my game Quie”
“Hi, I have a decent enough clickthrough rate but I really bad 'you're on the steam page' ->'wishlist' rate. Here are my stats, could you take a look and see what's wrong with my steam page and why are people who get impressions interested in clicking on the page, but once they land on the store page, they lose all interest? Any other stats you would need to see to get a better grasp of my weaknesses? Store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5171540/Sir_We_Have_a_”
“Eh but with the multitude of ways to get games fir less than 50%, why go through the trouble?”
“You were right, for a short game we shouldn't price it too high. Initially we planned for 12.5, but what made us more confident with a lower price, was the realization that many players said after testing "oh, that was more fun than I thought" implying they wouldn't have bought it based on their first impression. submitted by /u/tornadoleek [link] [comments]”
“Now heads up, this is my opinion and my thought, i havent sold any games or put up a game on steam yet, and i still do think working on a game you like for years is good but i'm discussing about how most games that take low effort to make gets a lot more than many other games. Needle in a haystack simulator is probably the best example of this, the guy posted about the most prototype looking project and 50+ million people saw it. its truly insane, because, people work years for making games”
“It may have taken almost 3 years but I'm just happy that my game Idle Reincarnator have sold over 10k units in both Steam and Google Playstore combined. I didn't expect it to be like this when I first made the game as it was my very first game I have developed. submitted by /u/Curious-Needle [link] [comments]”
“I recently released my first ever paid game on Steam: Kebab Shop Simulator. Before this, I released a free survival game that got a few hundred downloads and some positive, if critical, reviews. The idea was funnier in my head when I started, and the game didn't turn out quite how I planned. Still, it's finished and it's out there. These days you hear a lot of terms like "asset flip", "AI slop" and "friendslop". Sometimes they're valid, but I'm s”
“Hello everyone. I would like to talk to you about my game Echoes of the Deep : Incremental Endless Miner. Released my game on Steam on August 17th . I passed 100 sales and i am over the moon. Incremental games are my favourites after ARPGs. So i have made a game that combines both . You are Constantine. A Greek Miner set to discover the secrets of mount Olympus. I have been updating the game like crazy and what it is today is because of feedback. Have a look , and i hope i get to see you at Olym”
“Numbers from five months of selling 2D art asset packs on itch.io. It is a small store, so treat it as one data point. I am posting it because most published numbers come from stores that worked, and the small ones are what most people actually get. The store: 17 listings — 7 paid packs, 7 free samples, 3 tool-adjacent items. Paid prices $3.95 to $9.95. Lifetime gross: $71.16 across 12 payments. Average payment $5.91, largest $8.92, and $2.00 of that total is a tip someone left on a free listing”
“Anyone else have trouble marketing their game nowadays? submitted by /u/BlackRibbonStudios [link] [comments]”
“I always hear about how important it is to market your game, how people say it’s the most important aspect even above the quality of the game itself. But that makes me wonder, if this is true it suggests there are many or any amazing godly games out there with 0 or 2 reviews that are just as amazing as things like terraria or anything else that’s loved I can’t really wrap my head around it, I feel like if something is amazing it would be discovered either way? Does anyone have any actual example”
I never submitted any posts when I launched 13 days ago, but I'm proud Rutrum was able to make it to 10 reviews in 2 weeks. <3 https://store.steampowered.com/app/4776160/Rutrum/ submitted by /u/uncertainkey [link]…
“Hey everyone, A week ago, I posted “50+ sales after launch — what would you prioritize to market a niche puzzle game?” Thanks to everyone who shared advice. I acted on it and wanted to come back with some numbers. I stopped all paid advertising and prioritized Steam curator and Twitch streamer outreach. I also sent an email campaign to gaming journalists. Here’s how the game’s numbers have changed since the original post: Wishlists: 739 → 793. Sales: a little over 50 → 71. Steam reviews: 3 → 5.”
“A few gaming news pages on facebook wrote articles about SAFE INSIDE and it shot us up past 15k wishlists. We were around 13k before the first article and they caught like wildfire as more kept getting posted. The posts happened without us even knowing at first, but if you're looking for good marketing, I highly recommend reaching out to some news pages. I remember watching ac Chris Zukowski video way back and he said that "standing on the shoulders of giants" is one of the best wa”
“I've been consonantly driving some traffic to my page, a scant amount, but some. However, it's not manifesting as downloads of the demo, much less sales of my full version. Perhaps my game is just not in demand, but I would like to know if I'm doing anything wrong on my product page specifically that is standing in my way. The only game I've released is PostionalTD, the other items on my account are just a tech demo and toy I'm giving away to increase my profiles visibility.”
“Our steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3728550/Game_Shop_Simulator/ submitted by /u/Rude-Syllabub-1336 [link] [comments]”
“Our steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3728550/Game_Shop_Simulator/ submitted by /u/Rude-Syllabub-1336 [link] [comments]”
“https://store.steampowered.com/app/4922480/VASTWAKE/ above is the store page link, supporting the game helps a lot! submitted by /u/LitLBBunnoOfficial [link] [comments]”
“https://store.steampowered.com/app/4922480/VASTWAKE/ above is the store page link, supporting the game helps a lot! submitted by /u/LitLBBunnoOfficial [link] [comments]”
“Name: Paint By Numbers Platform: Steam Core Concept: Relaxing coloring of pictures Price: Free-to-Play. 49 DLCs ($2 per DLC) Budget: ~$1500(Title, some UI, and images from ShutterStock) Development time: a couple of months Release Date: May 20, 2021 Lifetime Steam revenue (gross): $34,021 Lifetime Steam revenue (net): $29,685 Lifetime Steam units: 31,994 DLC units Lifetime unique users: 15,351 Median time played: 42 minutes Reviews: 135(86% positive) Store link I’m Oleg, a solo indie developer,”
“Name: Paint By Numbers Platform: Steam Core Concept: Relaxing coloring of pictures Price: Free-to-Play. 49 DLCs ($2 per DLC) Budget: ~$1500(Title, some UI, and images from ShutterStock) Development time: a couple of months Release Date: May 20, 2021 Lifetime Steam revenue (gross): $34,021 Lifetime Steam revenue (net): $29,685 Lifetime Steam units: 31,994 DLC units Lifetime unique users: 15,351 Median time played: 42 minutes Reviews: 135(86% positive) Store link I’m Oleg, a solo indie developer,”
“Name: Paint By Numbers Platform: Steam Core Concept: Relaxing coloring of pictures Price: Free-to-Play. 49 DLCs ($2 per DLC) Budget: ~$1500(Title, some UI, and images from ShutterStock) Development time: a couple of months Release Date: May 20, 2021 Lifetime Steam revenue (gross): $34,021 Lifetime Steam revenue (net): $29,685 Lifetime Steam units: 31,994 DLC units Lifetime unique users: 15,351 Median time played: 42 minutes Reviews: 135(86% positive) Store link I’m Oleg, a solo indie developer,”
“I see this reoccurring theme talked about that when it comes to bad launches: it's better to start a new project because of how punishing the Steam algorithm is to existing flops, but I personally feel like that might not be the case. Firstly, I think it would be a bit unfair to not mention that if your game flops on launch, you are most definitely in a bad spot. I'm not arguing that at all. You lost your biggest shot to snowball off of the steam algorithm organically. HOWEVER, just beca”
“I’m not trying to insult someone or make any sort of a cultural statement or anything like that. I mean it. I also think there’s enormous value in making exactly whatever type of game you want to make, regardless of how well it sells. But if you DO want to sell it, then I think it’s worth noticing that a lot of the ones that people are making that do NOT sell have a “cute” aesthetic. Replacing humans with animals, things being small in general, pseudo-anime look, flashiness, big eyes, etc. In my”
“My game has started to make a small amount of sales on Steam and I am absolutely beaming! My first game took 2 years to get to 100 sales at 1 dollar each (most of which happened when it went on sale for 50 cents), this has only been in early access for a couple weeks and it is already at 10 at 6 dollars. To many it may seem like nothing, but for a guy who is trying his best to make good, fun games, that have a large overarching series narrative, it means the world to me that anyone tries it at a”
“Last week I shared how my game had sold 8 copies in a month. Now thanks to you, it has sold more than that in a week. THANK YOU! submitted by /u/Main-Photo-4756 [link] [comments]”
“It’s a well-known fact that most games released on Steam get almost no attention and end up buried somewhere in the basement of the store. By December, Steam was tracking 19,112 games released in 2025: ~49% had less than 10 reviews, 11% had 0 reviews, and ~8% crossed $100k in gross revenue. That’s stats. Feb 2026 Claude/Codex showed up, and X and Reddit were suddenly full of posts like: "It’s over, gamedev is dead, AI will replace all of us!”… etc. I actually tried this shit myself. I joine”
“Obligatory steam link https://store.steampowered.com/app/4525520/Jarred\_Defense/ submitted by /u/Mikolas3D [link] [comments]”
“Well, hi ) I've been working on this game for about 4 years, and technically it’s finally done. But based on Steam data and one marketing guru, the store page isn't doing very well. Most likely because of the screenshots (no trailer on the page yet): they're kinda ugly and don't represent the gameplay. So, what do you think you actually do in the game based only on these images? submitted by /u/Fluid_Independence41 [link] [comments]”
“I run a small solo studio and I finally instrumented everything, so for the first time I can see the whole path instead of guessing. The numbers are humbling. Across 9 published browser titles I have about 1,746 store page views. In the last thirty days those pages produced roughly 69 play sessions with real telemetry behind them, 6 downloads and 0 purchases. So the funnel is not leaking at the end. It is leaking at the very top: people look at the page and never press the play button. Things I”
“hey folks! made a little chrome extension for myself and figured some of you might want it too it sticks a small pill on any steam store page with estimated units sold, dev revenue after valve takes its cut, and wishlists for unreleased games obviously nobody can hand you exact numbers unless the studio announced them, and if they did the extension grabs that and uses it as an anchor so the main idea is that it runs a bunch of methods at once, review multipliers, follower ratios, wishlist rank p”
“I am happy and a bit exhausted by the whole rollercoaster of getting the game page and eventually the demo out. The first big moment was when I released the game page on Steam and started talking about the game. What worked was sharing art, and that's about it. Then the next big moment was releasing the demo on itch. After 1 month of constant QA and bug fixing, the demo took off, and many people played it, commented, and rated it. I am genuinely happy this happened. It helped to polish the d”
“I expected 5, so it's 3 more than I'd imagined. Here's the game if you're curious: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4975090/Shadow_Princess/ submitted by /u/Main-Photo-4756 [link] [comments]”
“Two days after launch: around 50 units sold. Yeah. Looking at those numbers, it’s pretty clearly a commercial flop, and I’m not gonna pretend otherwise lol. But honestly? I don’t regret it. I learned an insane amount just by finishing and shipping something, way more than any tutorial could’ve taught me. And to the ~50 people who actually bought it and gave it a shot - genuinely, thank you, it means more than you’d think. Already working on the next one, hoping to take everything I screwed up he”
“I know everyone has their own goals and it differs, but what's the benchmark number of plays indicating a game doing well after release? I've released my first game and only a couple people played the game. Then I released the second one Hyrax Hill , that was more visually appealing and I got 500 plays during 2 days. It's certainly a great progress for me, but I was wondering how it is doing compared to other games after release. submitted by /u/Sad-Word8960 [link]”
“It's actually kind of funny that people asked to get access and claimed to be interested in your game and would give feedback (from my other Reddit posts), then about a week later, when you check how many of them actually played the game after you opened the playtest, it's only around 3 people who played less than 10 mins, the rest of the playtime comes from yourself and your friends. Is this just another normal day for you devs? You can find the page here if you want to criticise my gam”
“Okay, I just need to get this off my chest. My first game launched on Steam three weeks ago. I spent 12 months on it — and then… nothing. Day 1: 20 copies sold. Day 10: 0. I keep refreshing the dashboard, hoping for some magic bump. But there’s no bump. Just a flat line, like a heart monitor of a dead patient. I keep asking myself: was it the art style? The gameplay loop? The trailer? The price? Or the fact that I had zero marketing budget and zero social media presence? Probably all of the abov”
“As a small developer it means a lot to me, my game demo has been out there for a while and yesterday I just got my first Steam review ever, I had such a good feeling reading this and finally reaching one of my goals for this game, and even more so knowing that it was such a positive review. It honestly made me really happy, and I hope there are more of them to come! submitted by /u/FabianoShark [link] [comments]”
“Steam page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4202190/VIRUS_31EXE/ I've been promoting my game on Reddit and to content creators (and a video was even made by one), but am battling to gain wishlists past a slow crawl. I've posted my trailer probably a couple dozen times and sent my game to a few dozen content creators by now. (solo and part time, so that's what two months of promotion looks like for me) The demo's median playtime is ~20 minutes with 120 players, and feedbac”
“just want to know because some people say that steam make almost all of the marketing for you, others say that you need to market your game, and others say that the ai slop/asset flip game influx make marketing your game in other platforms obligatory. what is your opinion ? submitted by /u/Helpful_Individual40 [link] [comments]”