The premium version of Dwarf Fortress is approaching an impressive milestone of 1 million copies sold. And the Adams brothers have no plans to stop developing their life’s project.
Tarn and Zach Adams told PC Gamer that Dwarf Fortress has surpassed 800k copies sold in just over a year since its paid release on Steam in December 2022.
The game sold over 160k units in its first 24 hours, significantly exceeding publisher Kitfox Games’ expectations. It surpassed the 300k mark in just six days and reached 500k copies sold by the end of 2022.
In January 2023 alone, Dwarf Fortress generated over $7 million in revenue, turning the Adams brothers into millionaires. Although a portion of this money went on taxes and salaries for new team members, it was enough to solve the “main issues of health/retirement that are troubling for independent people, as well as safeguarded the future of the game well enough.”
For comparison, the Adam brothers earned just over $1 million over the 15-year period from 2007 to 2022, when Dwarf Fortress was free and survived solely on donations from the community (by the way, the classic version remains available at no cost).
With nearly 1 million copies sold now, the Adams brothers told PC Gamer that the success just makes them feel “comfortable and stable.” For example, Zach was finally able to buy a house and a Honda Civic (“because I’ve always wanted one”).
Dwarf Fortress currently has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam, with 95% of the 23.4k user reviews being positive. It continues to attract around 1,000 concurrent players daily on average, and it will be interesting to see whether the game will be able to break its peak of 28.3k CCU following the upcoming Adventure Mode update.
The long-waited RPG/roguelike mode will finally be added to the premium version of Dwarf Fortress on April 17. “It’s just a gentle update,” Tarn Adams noted. “But it’s also the first time we’re communicating with our wishlist people ever. We have not emailed them [before] or anything.”
So in less than two weeks, more than 1 million Steam users will receive an email announcing the update’s launch. And the Adams brothers, as always, will continue to further develop and support the game they have been working on for the last two decades.