Hi, I'm hakairyuousinn (my X account).
To decide what to make next, I've been listing indie games that sold well: title, release date, price, 2D or 3D, team size, number of reviews and so on.
I started with 129 games on October 29. Now there are 240.
Look only at the biggest hits and it's all 3D online games
The first games I collected were ones featured at game showcases. Of 17 hits in that group, the four with the most reviews were all 3D online co-op or competitive games. They were made by companies or teams of between ten and twenty people too.
Looking only at those, making one alone seemed impossible.
Most of the 38 more modest successes could be played alone
Next, I looked for games that sold well without being huge hits, starting with the best rated, and added 38.
| 38 games with more modest sales | Number of games |
|---|---|
| Playable alone | 36 |
| 2D | 23 |
| 3D | 13 |
| Made by one person (of 25 with a known team size) | 16 |
The median price was $7.99. A completely different picture from the biggest hits.
One developer, 10,000 copies in 15 days
For example, Rock Crusher's developer reported 10,000 copies sold in 15 days. Squeakross sold about 45,000 copies in its first year, including about 6,000 on Switch.
Sandustry combines falling-sand simulation with factory building. It was made by one developer and announced sales of 100,000 copies.
A few cautions about counting
For games without published sales figures, I estimate sales at 30 times the review count. But estimates elsewhere use multipliers ranging from 20 to 60. Sandustry had about 2,000 reviews when it announced 100,000 sales, which works out to 50 times.
This table also contains only games that sold well. Games that didn't sell aren't in it, so it doesn't tell me that small single-player games are more likely to succeed.
Where I searched changed the trends I saw too. At first, there wasn't a single game that spread through playthrough videos, like Only Up! On October 30, I added 46 examples of games that spread that way.
After looking through this table, I decided to aim for a game with more modest sales rather than start by chasing a huge hit.