Everybody and their cousin’s dog’s chiropractor knows Stardew Valley is one of the most popular indie games, even two years after its initial release in February 2016.
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By the time it hit Nintendo Switch in October 2017, it had already graced a myriad of platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, and Xbox One. Yet, when it hit the Nintendo hybrid console it instantly started selling, so much so that it is nearing one million copies sold in six months on the system.
As you may know, back at the end of 2017 it was revealed that the game had sold over 3.5 million copies across all platforms, which ain’t too shabby for a game that had little pre-release love, and that just spilled out one random evening on Steam. Oh, and it was made by only one guy (Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe).
Presumably, this means life-time sales for the game are nearing four million, if they haven’t passed that already. That’s more than many AAA games sell. Again, impressive.
In the shadow of Stardew Valley‘s Switch sales announcement was news that Overcooked from developer Ghost Town Games and publisher Team17 has surpassed 500,000 copies sold on the Nintendo console since its release there last summer. Lifetime sales for Overcooked haven’t been divulged like they have for Stardew Valley, but if the co-op cooking sim is putting up those kind of numbers just on the Switch, you have to assume the figure is in the millions.
Nintendo’s current President, Tatsumi Kimishima, who just this week announced his retirement (effective June 28th), had the following to say about indies and their success on Switch during a recent financial call:
“All of these titles were released for other companies’ platforms before ever being available for Nintendo Switch, so it seems consumers have recognized how well they fit with the ‘anytime, anywhere, with anyone’ concept of Nintendo Switch,” said Kimishima.
“Titles from indie developers have a particular presence in the North American and European markets. Compared to other parts of the world, there is still work to be done in Japan to expand awareness of titles from indie developers. We want to give as many consumers as possible the chance to find the kinds of games they have always wanted to play. By expanding the game genres and increasing the number of game titles, we anticipate more interest from consumers who originally had little interest in Nintendo platforms.”
Elsewhere during the same financial call, Kimishima also revealed Nintendo Switch’s lifetime sales, as well as the sales of Nintendo’s hardware-pushing, first-party games that have released for it since its launch back in March 2017.
