Tarn and Zach Adams have updated the revenue data for Dwarf Fortress. The game brough in a record-breaking amount of money tothe developers last month, a testament to its success upon launch on Steam.
The Adams brothers disclosed the information in a recent post on the Bay 12 Games forums. It looks like they have for the first time received money from Dwarf Fortress sales on Steam where it launched on December 6.
- The game reached $7,230,123 in revenue in January 2023.
- That is 462 times the $15,635 in December and nearly 44 times the $164,666 Bay 12 Games made in all of 2022.
- The Adams Brothers earned a total of $1,212,562 between 2007 and 2022, meaning they made more money in January than they have in the last 15 years.
“There is now no longer any existence except the one that you have provided,” the developer’s message to their fans reads. “When we pass from this world, you will be the reason we are remembered.”
Bay 12 Games noted that almost half of the $7.2 million will go to taxes, not to mention the salaries for new team members and other business expenses that Tarn and Zach will now have to face.
This surge in revenue happened due to the long-awaited release of the premium version of Dwarf Fortress. Launched on December 6, the game sold 160,000 units on Steam in just 24 hours and reached the 500,000 mark by the end of 2022.
Prior to this, Bay 12 Games only counted on donations from their devoted fans and supporters. The game itself, the first version of which came out in 2006, has remained completely free-to-play all these years.
So after years of hard work, the Adams brothers have finally earned enough money to solve “the main issues of health/retirement that are troubling for independent people, as well as safeguard the future of the game well enough.”
As of February 2, Dwarf Fortress has a 95% rating on Steam, based on more than 17,000 user reviews. According to SteamDB, the game peaked at 28,340 concurrent players, with thousands of people playing it every day.