In recent years, the dynamics of game sales has changed significantly. Indie developer Jason Rohrer came to this conclusion by comparing the data on release sales of his projects.
Game designer Chris Zukowski told about Rohrer’s presentation “2014 vs. 2018: The Form of financial success before and after the “Indian Apocalypse”” at GDC 2019.
As an example, Rohrer cited two of his own games.
Sales of Rohrer’s games in the first monthSales of Rohrer’s games in the second month
The Castle Doctrine
The Castle Doctrine is a Rohrer game released in 2014. It is marked with an orange line on the graph photographed by Zukowski.
In the first days after the release, the game reached peak sales. The pace of sales decreased just as sharply. In the second month, it finally reached a plateau, periodically dropping to near-zero values. To date, it has been purchased by no more than 20 thousand players in the Valve store, according to SteamSpy.
The Castle DoctrineOne Hour One Life
Another Rohrer project — One Hour One Life — was released last year. Rohrer marked it with a green line. It demonstrates a completely different sales dynamics.
In the first week, sales grew very slowly. The game reached its peak only by the second week. But in the following month, sales remained at a higher level than those of Rohrer’s other projects. And even made a noticeable leap from time to time.
We add that now the game is owned by 20-50 thousand Steam users. Overall, it turned out to be more successful than The Castle Doctrine.
One Hour One Life
According to Rohrer, these charts prove that the peak of sales of modern games is no longer so strongly tied to the release date.
The pace of implementation is growing slower than four years ago. But they are supported longer. A month after the release, the growth of new players no longer drops to zero. It is higher and more stable.
App2Top emphasizes that all of the above is the opinion of one indie developer. The editorial board’s position may not coincide with Rohrer’s position.
Note that The Castle Doctrine and One Hour One Life, although they do not differ in genre, were received differently by the audience. The latter’s ratings on Steam and on Metacritic are higher than the former. The Castle Doctrine’s very low sales values for the second month could be due to the fact that the players did not rate the project.