Exploring new viral hit on Steam: Supermarket Simulator peaks at nearly 40k CCU, above similar job sims from PlayWay

What is Supermarket Simulator?

• Launched in Early Access on February 20, Supermarket Simulator is a job sim game, where players have to run their own store by installing shelves and other furniture, while also ordering stock and managing prices.
• It looks pretty much like many other small-budget titles in the job sim subgenre: low-poly graphics, first-person perspective, etc. So if you have ever tried or seen any PlayWay games, you know what to expect from Supermarket Simulator in terms of visuals.
• As gameplay progresses, players will be able to expand their store’s space, upgrade interior design, and use other macro- and micromanagment mechanics to run a successful business and satisfy customers.
• The game’s Steam page went live in November 2023, with the devs then changing the name from Market Simulator to Supermarket Simulator “for marketing reasons.” Prior to launch, the team made a free prologue and demo, also participating in the Steam Next Fest earlier this year.

Great success from Turkish developers

• Nokta Games, a Turkish studio founded in 2017 by Yusuf Toptan and Aslıhan Öztürk, is credited as both the developer and publisher of Supermarket Simulator.
• According to local website Gamizm, the team is really small with just four employees.
• Interestingly, developer Cannias wrote on Steam that they are the “only dev of the game,” also “doing everything else pretty much alone.” However, it is unclear who exactly goes by the nickname and whether Cannias works at Nokta or is an independent creator partnering with the studio.
• “I want to thank you all for playing the game and for your interest. This has been a crazy week for me. I wasn’t expecting this much,” the developer wrote. “My first priority is to fix all the bugs. Then I’ll work on your suggestions related to LoQ such as keyboard entry for card reader etc. And then I’ll develop more content as in my road map.”
• Before making a PC-first simulation game, Nokta Games was a mobile developer. Its debut title, Toy of War, launched in 2019 on Google Play but reached less than $5,000 in IAP revenue (via AppMagic).
• The studio then made several hyper-casual games before attempting to enter the PC market with Supermarket Simulator. So it is an interesting case of mobile devs completely changing the niche and eventually finding success.

Supermarket Simulator’s launch looks strong against other games in the genre

• According to Toptan, Supermarket Simulator had over 33k wishlists shortly before launch, with about 2,000 additions per day. The game also managed to enter the Popular Upcoming section on Steam and became one of the 50 most played demos during the latest Next Fest.
• It received a warm reception from players on Steam, with 94% of the 5,650 user reviews being positive.

• Supermarket Simulator didn’t instantly go viral, peaking at just over 3,000 concurrent players in its first 24 hours (via SteamDB). However, the game continued to gradually attract players, eventually reaching 38,056 peak CCU on March 4.
• This makes it the 11th biggest launch of 2024 by concurrent players, between Persona 3 Reload (45k CCU) and Balatro (37.3k CCU).

• Interestingly, the 38k peak is also higher than any other game from PlayWay, a Polish publisher known for its collection of small-budget sim games.
• For example, the title with the highest player count in the company’s portfolio is Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 (22.5k CCU), followed by House Flipper 2 (18.1k CCU) and House Flipper (15.9k CCU). Other notable PlayWay games on Steam include Contraband Police (8.1k CCU), Thief Simulator (7.1k CCU), and Cooking Simulator (3.5k CCU).

Top 10 PlayWay games on Steam by peak CCU

• One of the reasons behind Supermarket Simulator’s viral success is the attention from various streamers around the world. According to SullyGnome, Supermarket Simulator has been gradually rising in popularity on Twitch since its EA launch, reaching over 4.2 million hours watched.
• On March 3, it peaked at over 141k viewers, with its top five languages being Spanish, French, English, German, and Russian.

• The game is also getting more popular on YouTube, with different content creators making let’s plays and other videos about it. And many of them are really successful in terms of numbers. For example, a video from MM7Games generated over 576k views in 12 days, while popular Russian YouTuber Kuplinov Play released a video that has already surpassed 2 million (!) views since February 25.

• Supermarket Simulator also became the 12th highest-grossing game on Steam for the week of February 27-March 5. With the base US price of $12.99 and a 20% discount at launch, it has likely sold a bunch of copies in its first two weeks.
• Nokta Games plans to release version 1.0 of Supermarket Simulator within the next 12 months, so it will be interesting to watch the game’s further development following the successful Early Access launch.