Stephen Brenish
Most advice on indie game revenue reads like a menu: sell on Steam, try Kickstarter, get a publisher. What it usually skips is that the same strategy can earn very different amounts for similar games, and that revenue decisions made after the game is finished are made too late.
Revenue strategy belongs in pre-production. Platform, genre, price and audience-building all shape what the game can earn, and by launch most of those choices are locked.
Start with a reality check
Revenue on Steam is extremely concentrated. A small share of games earns most of the money, and many releases earn very little. That is not a reason to quit; it is a reason to be deliberate. The games that break through are not always better made. More often they are better positioned: a specific audience, on the right platform, at a fitting price, with enough visibility before launch.
Two habits help. Look at comparable games, in your genre and at your scope, rather than at the hits everyone talks about. And track a leading indicator from early in development: wishlists. The Steam wishlist calculator shows what your count implies for launch-week sales, and the Steam revenue calculator turns sales into what actually reaches you.
The main revenue models compared
| Model | Upfront cost or cut | Ceiling | When money arrives | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium sale (Steam, Epic, consoles) | Store share (Steam’s standard is 30%) | High, but the typical outcome is modest | From launch | High and front-loaded |
| Premium plus DLC | DLC development cost | Extends the tail | Launch, then each release | Medium to high |
| Early Access | Ongoing updates and community management | Varies widely | From the Early Access launch | Medium |
| Free-to-play with purchases | Live operations, servers, user acquisition | Very high if it works | Slowly | Very high |
| Crowdfunding | Campaign time plus platform and payment fees | Usually limited to the campaign | During the campaign | Medium |
| Publisher deal | Share of revenue and often rights | Depends on the deal | Advance before launch | Lower for you, at a price |
| Ports to other platforms | Porting and certification costs | Can extend lifetime revenue | After each port ships | Medium |
| Subscription service deals | Negotiated with the platform | One-time or structured payment | On signing or inclusion | Low, but capped |
A few things the table cannot show. Free-to-play needs live operations infrastructure that a solo developer usually cannot sustain. Early Access only works when players have a reason to engage before the game is finished. And publisher, subscription and porting deals vary so much that the only useful numbers are the ones in the offer in front of you.
Premium sales: where most indies live
How To Fail at Marketing Indie Games · Artindi on YouTube
Most indie games that earn real money do it with a single premium price. Four things decide how well that works: demand for the genre on the platform, the price against perceived value, your wishlist count at launch, and your discounting plan afterwards.
On price, underpricing is a more common mistake than overpricing. A cheaper game has to sell many more copies to earn the same amount, and lower prices rarely produce proportionally more sales. Price against comparable games in your genre with similar length and production value, not against what you would personally pay. Then plan your first discounts around Steam’s rules: no discounts in the first 30 days except an optional launch discount, and 30 days between discounts, with seasonal sales exempt. The Steam sale and Next Fest calendar shows which sales your launch date lets you join.
DLC, ports and the long tail
Most revenue conversations obsess over launch week. The months after it matter as much.
DLC. If your game has a dedicated audience, a substantial expansion priced as a fraction of the base game gives existing players a reason to come back and spend again. Illustration: if 10% of 50,000 owners buy a $7.99 expansion, that is about $40,000 before store share. Use your own player numbers to test the idea before you build it.
Ports. A game that does modestly on PC can earn more on consoles, especially Switch, where many indies find a second audience. Porting and certification costs vary widely with your engine and codebase, so get quotes and model it before you decide. The console certification checklist shows what a port has to pass.
Updates. Free updates keep a game visible and give you reasons to run discounts and marketing beats long after launch.
Crowdfunding is marketing first
Crowdfunding works best as audience validation and marketing, not as your whole development budget. If the game cannot be made unless the campaign succeeds, you are in a fragile position. If you already have a playable build and use a campaign to prove demand, build a community and earn early press, it can be very valuable.
Successful campaigns usually have a playable demo, an engaged community before launch, a goal that funds a specific part of the project rather than the entire game, and stretch goals that do not blow up the schedule. Budget for platform and payment fees, reward fulfilment and the time the campaign itself takes.
Publisher deals: read the recoupment terms
A publisher can bring an advance, marketing, porting and platform relationships. The price is a share of revenue, and sometimes rights. The term that matters most is recoupment: how much the publisher earns back before you see revenue beyond the advance.
Illustration: a $250,000 advance with the publisher taking 70% of net revenue until it recoups means the game has to generate about $357,000 in net revenue before the advance is paid back. At $19.99 with a 30% store share, that is roughly 25,500 copies. Work out your own break-even point on every offer before you sign, and compare it with realistic sales for the genre. For milestone structures in these deals, see how to plan milestones for a publisher deal.
Grants and tax credits
Public funding is not revenue, but it changes how much revenue you need. Depending on where you are based, grants can fund prototypes or production, and tax credits can return a share of what you spend. The game development grants database lists 22 verified programs.
Tools and further reading
GameDiscoverCo, Simon Carless’s newsletter, publishes ongoing analysis of Steam sales and discovery. The Game Producer’s Handbook by Dan Irish is dated in places, but its fundamentals on scoping and risk hold up. And the GDC Vault has some of the most candid postmortems available, many of them free.
Photo: Daniil Komov via Pexels
