Game Revenues

[filharvey]

I was wondering about what people would be happy with for month revenues, for a good indie game.

Would a income of $1000 / $2000 / $5000 be something people would be happy with. Also how would you expect the income to change over 3 months, 6 month.

Also how do you see portals affecting this income, and how they change over the life time of the game?

I'm asking, as in a couple of months, I will have finished working on the AAA project I have been for the last couple of years, and want a small break, and was looking at developing several small indie game in this time.

Thanks

Phil

[svero]

speaking strictly about my own personal sales .. not including portals and retail deals etc....

0-3k bad
3-5k average
5-10k good
10-15k great

[Andy]

speaking strictly about my own personal sales .. not including portals and retail deals etc....

0-3k bad
3-5k average
5-10k good
10-15k great

3-5k is average monthly revenue for one game? - Err... I see we still have a room to grow :)

[Jack Norton]

0-3K BAD???
lol! svero, then since you have 4-5 games I should assume that you earn minimum 15k month? and that's a bad result?!? :D

EDIT: maybe I read your post wrongly, you meant income from all your games?

[filharvey]

Thanks all for the quick response.


Phil

[Sirrus]

I'd be happy with 2500-3000/month at this point in my life...

I figure that $30,000/yr isn't bad yet...
2500 / 30 days = $83/day .... $83 / 17.95 ($19.95 product - 10% transaction fee) = 4.6 sales/day

Very achievable.

[robleong]

3-5k is average monthly revenue for one game? - Err... I see we still have a room to grow :)

Wow, you guys are simply amazing!

[svero]

0-3K BAD???
lol! svero, then since you have 4-5 games I should assume that you earn minimum 15k month? and that's a bad result?!? :D

EDIT: maybe I read your post wrongly, you meant income from all your games?

I'd be happy if all my games did a solid 3k a month and I had a cumulative total of 30k coming in but that's not generally how it works out. There are spikes for new games, and games die out, and some just don't sell etc... The winners end up having to compensate for the losers. A game that's selling really well can do 10-20 sales a day though, and pull in a lot more from portals, and retail deals etc... So yeah, I meant for 1 game. Anyway.. I wouldn't read too much into what I wrote. Those are my measures for success and not necessarily indicative of my income.

[RedKnight]

3K bad?

I'll be very happy if I can get 1k a month.
(if I can finished it that is)

[svero]

Well I'm surprised really that people find those numbers surprising. I mean... Suppose I spend 6 months working on a game. And then it starts pulling in 1000$-3000$ a month. Somehow that has to pay for the artist, my time (and I dont work alone so really 2 people), phone, inernet, server etc... I guess over time several games might add up to an amount that could cover basic expenses, but in reality older game sales fade, and you can only really split up your traffic amongst so many titles. If 100 people visit your site and you have 2 games you don't get as many sales of each game as you would just pushing the one. I guess those kinds of numbers are fine if it's a part time job or a hobby and it's providing some extra income, but if it's your only income it's just not sufficient.

[princec]

Not so surprising considering most of us are making <$100 a month ;)

Cas :)

[Jack Norton]

Those numbers might be ok for you that are more than 3-4 years in the business, but for someone just starting out I think 1000$/month is already an exceptional result... ;)

[Ricardo C]

It also depends greatly on where you live. In my corner of the world, $3k a month would be more than enough to sustain an upper middle class lifestyle.

[Fry Crayola]

I'd snatch at $3k a month. Heck, that's what I earn now in my first job out of university, before tax. To be working on my own games instead of doing that job (much as I like it, but it is only five days old) would be great.

Hopefully in three to five years time.

[svero]

Well I don't think of it in terms of how long I've been doing it or any of that. I think of it in terms of being worth my time relative to a regular job and whether I can meet my living expenses. At 1-3k income from a game I'm on the edge of having to close up shop and find some other means to support myself. Keep in mind that the money is split with artists, and another fulltime partner.

[KNau]

Just curious, are you saying Space Taxi 2 earned more than 1k - 3k per month?

[Andy]

Or you suppose all your (our at least) games bad Steve? :)
REM: I don't think so really. Just wondering.

[svero]

Hmm.. probably shouldn't have answered this thread. I forgot how voracious the desire to learn other people's sales is on these boards. I really just wanted to share my perception of what it means for a game to be a success in my eyes. I've never been one to discuss sales figures in public (or at all really except with a choice few people) and I won't start now.

I'll just say this.. since it wasn't clear. The figures I gave in my first response are what I'd think of how a game was selling a few months after release. I'd expect those figures to drop with time. So if a game was still pulling in 2-3k a month after a few years I'd be pretty happy with that.

[Andy]

Steve. Just to explain also.

The starting statement was too laud :-) To consider 3$ monthly income for one single game - it's a little bit err... OK. At least I see you concern now and can explain why I wasn't able to get it from the very beginning.

We haven't experienced that starting burst in sales at our company yet. Because every good selling game was starting OK - but was selling even better with every next month. Just because we are very starting and growing. And no one our single game haven't beaten yet that 3$ monthly sales barrier (from our site I mean).

That depends pretty much from preheap you are able to produce before your game starts. Depends from marketing policy of your company - game content (some guys are going survive with one single game as we know) etc.

REM: But yeah, I'd be pretty dissapointed if our upcoming INVASION 2 wouldn't produce good sales heap from our current customers at the beginning.

[ggambett]

not including portals and retail deals etc.... 3-5k average (per game)
Hmmm, let me put it this way.

HOLY COW!!!!

PS : Why are the icons gone?

[Mark Fassett]

Jeez - $3000 a month is only 5.5 sales a day. It's really not all that much (though significantly more than what I'm doing at the moment). It's also only 36k a year. I really don't understand why anyone would think it's an outrageous target.

Sure - lots of us don't make that on a game, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[Andy]

$3000... but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

I wouldn't call it "bad" - that's really what I was meaning by my starting question. Game launch, etc. - that explains a lot. But as I said our games are selling a little better with ever day - so we don't know yet what the game launch means for good developed company like Steve has.

Just one more mention how are we different here - nothing more :D

[Jack Norton]

Thinking more about it, is non-sense talking about amount/month for a game. What matter should be the total amount (which is difficult to determine).
A game that still sells even a few copies month but for 10 years would be better than one that sells a lot the first month then practically stops (I don't have such examples to make with my games since they're all still relatively new).

[Diodor Bitan]

So svero's point is that success is really a matter of return of investment. The success of a three months game with a one man team and programmer's art is judged differently from a one year game with a team of 5.

A game that still sells even a few copies month but for 10 years would be better than one that sells a lot the first month then practically stops (I don't have such examples to make with my games since they're all still relatively new).

Actually, if they bring in the same amount of money, the one that sells a lot in the first month is much much better than the 10 years one.

[Jack Norton]

Yes obviously I meant something like:
game A = 200$/month x 10 years
game B = 2000$/month x 6 months then 10$/month :)

[Diodor Bitan]

Yes obviously I meant something like:
game A = 200$/month x 10 years
game B = 2000$/month x 6 months then 10$/month :)

The second game would keep me working fulltime on indie games for a year, the first game wouldn't even finance one month. Considering my goal to reach self-sufficient levels, I would rather have a B game on my hands.

Besides, you never said anything about the sequel of game B. Would it earn $2K x 6 as well? :)

[svero]

I can't think of a reason why a game would make 200$ for 10 yrs and another would make 2000 per month for 6 months then die off. The one that makes more money will probably continue to make more money in the long run as well unless there's something really topical about it.

[Jack Norton]

Well the classic align 3 colors or puzzle games comes to mind. This could be an example of game B. The niche games like Spidweb games could be a good example of game A.
Those are only my supposition since I don't really know the sales figures of those games :)
But is a long story since you should also take into account the time spent working on game A-B...