Indie games make up the majority of products released on Steam every year. But how much money doe they make on the platform and what is their revenue share compared to AA/AAA titles? A new report from VG Insights sheds some light on this matter.
Manor Lords (top left), Palworld (bottom left), Black Myth: Wukong (right)
- According to VG Insights’ Global Indie Games Market Report, indie games have generated nearly $4 billion in gross revenue* on Steam from January 1 to September 30, 2024. This is 48% of all full-game revenue on the platform this year.
*VG Insights only takes into account revenue from full-game sales, excluding in-app purchases and other income.
- The indie segment has come close to AA/AAA games in terms of sales revenue for the first time ever, accounting for 48% of the $8.3 billion in full-game revenue generated on Steam year-to-date. Overall, its share rose 17 percentage points from 2023, also doubling since 2018.
- VG Insights estimates the total number of copies sold on Steam this year at 504 million, with 58% of those being indie games.
- Indie games account for 98.9% of the 13,007 products released on the platform so far this year, meaning their revenue is spread across thousands of titles of varying scale and levels of success. It is an important factor to take into account.
- This year’s impressive growth was largely driven by outliers like Black Myth: Wukong and Palworld, which VG Insights classifies as indie games. Despite operating budgets comparable to the AAA segment and raising funds from giants like Tencent, Game Science remains an independent studio. The same goes for last year’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
- “Indie games have become ever harder to define and there is often no clear answer whether something falls under indie or AA/AAA,” the analysts noted. So it is all about definition and meeting certain criteria, which have become quite blurry.
- Black Myth: Wukong alone grossed $1 billion, more than all other 2024 indie releases combined. Games launched prior to 2024 generated $1.7 billion, or 43% of the total, likely driven by strong sales of older hits and discounts.
- VG Insights divides the indie market into four segments: “Triple-i” (50+ people on the team, over 1 million copies sold and $50 million in revenue), middle market (15-50 people, 200k-1 million copies sold, $10 million in revenue), small teams (3-15 people, 20-200k copies sold, $1 million in revenue), and hobbyists (1-2 people, 2-20k copies sold, $50k in revenue).
- The Triple-i segment accounts for 53% of all indie game revenue this year so far, followed by small teams (20%), the middle market (19%), and hobbyists (8%).
- As VG Insights pointed out, “all types of indie studios have seen growth since Covid, however, the relative share of all revenue is increasingly skewed towards the biggest games.”
- The market has matured over the past several years, with indie developers getting more experienced. According to the analysts, more “more indies than ever before are launching their 2nd and 3rd games.”
- Devs who have already released games on Steam tend to make more money with each subsequent project. Third games from the same team generate $209k in gross revenue on average, vs. $168k and $120k for second and first ones.
- For the full year, VG Insights expects the indie segment to generate $4.9 billion in revenue (+82% year-over-year), with combined sales of 381 million units (+33 YoY).
More data and insights can be found in the full report.