The Binding of Isaac
7,172,818 Players
Recently, a leak in the Steam API allowed everyone to see some of the most accurate player counts available to date. While the information presented does not fully represent hard sales data, it does count every player that has played a game with achievements more than once on Steam.
While looking through the list we thought it would be interesting to see exactly how well indie games were doing compared to major releases. And, as it turns out, there are a lot of indie games that are holding their own.
Starting things off at nearly 7.2 million players is The Binding of Isaac by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. The game originally released on Steam in September of 2011. With this information, we can surmise that the game picked up roughly 1 million new players each year since its release.
It’s also worth noting that these figures wouldn’t take into account the player count of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the 2014 remake. Rebirth has been successful in its own right with 2,756,509 players revealed in the leaked data.
Path of Exile
7,634,137 Players
Next up, at an impressive 7.6 million players is Path of Exile by Grinding Gear Games. This game found its Steam release in October of 2013. This one picked up steam (pun intended) a little bit quicker than The Binding of Isaac, growing by over 1.5 million players per year on average. One contributing factor to this may be the game’s free-to-play status, because who doesn’t love free stuff?
An interesting aside is that this game is no longer an indie game, strictly speaking, as Grinding Gear Games was acquired by the Chinese tech-giant Tencent in May of this year. That, perhaps, gives credit to how far the game has truly come as well.
Trove
7,700,319 Players
At eighth on the list, with 7.7 million players comes Trove by Trion Worlds. Having released in July of 2015, Trove is the fastest growing game on this list so far. Since its Steam release Trove has grown at an astounding average of 2.5 million players per year. As with Path of Exile, Trove is also a free-to-play game.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
8,260,157 Players
In 7th, with 8.2 million players we have Chivalry: Medieval Warfare by Torn Banner Studios. Chivalry released on Steam in October of 2012. This means that despite the game’s impressive total player count, it was a bit of a slower burn increasing by just 1.3 million players per year on average.
Did you know that while Chivalry’s Steam release was completely independent, when it was released on console it was backed by Activision?
ARK: Survival Evolved
9,103,947 Players
Taking the 6th spot, with 9.1 million players is ARK: Survival Evolved by Studio Wildcard. While the game’s official release was in August of 2017, it had been released on Steam Early Access since June of 2015. That shows that the game’s player count has grown by just over 3 million per year on average.
Rust
9,147,240 Players
Next up with 9.1 million players is Rust by Facepunch Studios. Now this one technically released in February of 2018, but as with ARK, Rust debuted on Steam Early Access in December of 2013. Because of its incredibly long Early Access release, the game achieved meme-status with players wondering if it would ever actually release in full. It’s possible these memes helped out because Rust saw an average of just over 2 million players joining per year.
If you’re looking for other games like Rust, check out this article!
Rocket League
10,110,342 Players
Coming in at 4th, with 10.1 million players is Rocket League by Psyonix, Inc. Rocket League was originally released in July of 2015 and saw widespread success on all platforms soon after when it was given away for free to Playstation Plus members on PS4. Since its Steam release, Rocket League has grown by nearly 3.4 million players per year on average.
Robocraft
10,145,493 Players
In 3rd, with 10.1 million players comes another free-to-play game in Robocraft by Freejam. Robocraft initially released on Steam Early Access in March of 2013 . The game did not, however, gain much traction until multiplayer was added to the game the following month. Within its first year Freejam advised that they had gained over 300,000 players. The game eventually saw an official release in August of 2017. Robocraft has grown at a rate of roughly 2 million players per year on average.
Terraria
13,132,545 Players
In the penultimate position of the list, with 13.1 million players is Terraria by Re-Logic. Terraria, which is often thought of as one of the forefathers of the indie-boom, was released on Steam in May of 2011. Many games, such as other hits like Starbound who has found a successful 4,309,358 players to date, have Terraria to thank for popularizing this specific genre of sandbox game. Since its initial release, Terraria has grown by a not-insubstantial average of 1.8 million players per year.
PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
36,604,134 Players
What did you expect? Of course PUBG would be topping off this list. PUBG was initially released on Steam Early Access in March of 2017 by PUBG Corporation. The game already had success during its original run as an ARMA II mod entitled DayZ: Battle Royale before becoming a smash-hit seemingly overnight in its standalone form.
Not only has PUBG reached over 36.6 million people on Steam in just over a year, it has made the list of best selling games of all time. On top of this feat, the game also holds the current record for concurrent players on Steam at just over 3 million.
While the success of PUBG is definitely an outlier, this entire list shows that indie games absolutely have the capacity to compete in a marketplace and win against AAA titles. Which indie games were you surprised to see near the top of the player count in the recent Steam leak?
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