Global Indie Games Market Report 2024 (Sensor Tower)

Summary

• Indie games are making as much money on Steam as AAA and AA games for the first time ever, and the indie revenue share has doubled since 2018.p.4
• Indie full game revenue grew from $2.7bn in 2023 to $4.0bn in 2024 year to date.p.9
• Indie games released before 2024 accounted for 43% of total indie market full-game revenue in 2024.p.9
• The top two indie launches of 2024 on Steam sold 20.6M and 20.1M units.p.5
• Triple I Indies make up over half of all indie game revenue in 2024, so revenue is increasingly concentrated in a handful of games.p.13
• Average revenue per indie game rises with experience: $120k for a first game, $168k for a second and $209k for three or more.p.16
• Black Myth and Palworld were the primary drivers of indie market growth in 2024.p.9

Key insights

1. The indie market continues to grow despite the wider industry's slowdown.p.8
2. Black Myth reportedly had a budget of $70 million, comparable to modern AAA game budgets.p.6
3. Triple I Indies are teams of 50+ with performance of 1m+ units and $50m+ revenue.p.11
4. Triple I Indie games were very rare before Covid but have grown strongly since 2020.p.13
5. More indies than ever are launching their 2nd and 3rd games.p.15
6. Second games outperform firsts by +40% in average revenue, and games from studios with 3+ prior releases outperform by a further +24%.p.16
7. Pocketpair's Palworld made over $400M versus under $15M combined for its 4 previous games.p.16