What Type of Indie Games Actually Sell Best? (And Why)

By Design Diary

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Using data analysis and market research, this video explores what genres of game sell the most copies on Steam, as well as what genres are a bad choice for indie developers. We also explore the reasons behind why the most popular games are more successful than the alternatives. 00:29 Steam Data Analysis 01:53 Steam Analysis Results 04:08 Reasons behind the trends 06:12 Indies in the Steam Top 100 07:36 Long-Term Progression 09:08 Summary Sources: Dataset used: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/fronkongames/steam-games-dataset VG Insights Article: https://vginsights.com/assets/reports/VGI_Global_Indie_Games_Market_Report_2024.pdf Crafty Buildy Games Article: https://howtomarketagame.com/2024/12/27/what-are-crafty-buildy-strategy-simulation-games/ Horror game research: https://howtomarketagame.com/2023/10/02/every-indie-game-developer-should-make-a-horror-game/ Talk on "Infinite Unique Situation Generators": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIqz5xmQKnc&t=1391s&ab_channel=GDC2025 Steam Cha

Tags: indie game, data analysis, game marketing, game marketing strategy, indie games, indie gaming, indiedev, game design, game development, video game data

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