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There is no dependable universal earnings figure for a small indie game. The best current broad benchmark located is an estimated $4,837 median gross revenue across 107 Steam subgenres—not a forecast for a particular game, a small-team-only result, or money a developer takes home. In Immutable’s licensed dataset, pulled on September 10, 2026, 81 of those 107 tag medians were below $10,000 gross. The figures are modeled estimates, so they are useful for understanding the range of outcomes, not for predicting your game’s income.
What does a typical small indie game earn?
No published figure in the available sources isolates a current, complete population of small-team indie games. Immutable’s 2026 Steam analysis offers a useful reference point: its estimated median gross revenue across 107 subgenres is $4,837. That is the middle of its tag-level estimates, not the median earnings of a rigorously defined small-indie cohort. The estimate is not actual developer payout.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Sea of Stars - Nintendo Switch | $34.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Stray - Nintendo Switch | $28.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Indie Game Works: Inside the revolution that's transforming how we play | $37.33 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
My Arcade Atari Pocket Player-Console preloaded with 100 Games, 2.8" Screen | $39.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
One Last Breath - Nintendo Switch | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
Immutable says it uses a licensed third-party dataset pulled September 10, 2026, samples roughly 20 games around the middle rank for each Steam tag, and rounds estimates. Steam does not publish per-game sales publicly, so these are modeled figures rather than official sales records. The method estimates revenue by multiplying estimated copies by current list price; it does not fully account for historical prices, discounts, regional pricing, bundles, or refunds. Immutable’s methodology and tag estimates explain those limits.
The median is more useful than an average when a few hits can be vastly larger than most releases. Immutable estimates the top Colony Sim game at $255 million gross while the tag median is $17,300—a gap of roughly 14,700 times. That extreme spread shows why a headline about a hit, or an average pulled upward by hits, is a poor guide to a typical outcome.
#1 Best Overall
- A Turn-Based RPG Inspired by the Classics!
- Engaging Turn-Based Combat - Timed hits, combo attacks, boosting, damage types and spellbreaking.
- Unshackled Traversal - Swim, climb, vault, jump off or hoist up as you traverse the world seamlessly.
- A Story Rich Adventure - Dozens of characters and story arcs will take you on a captivating journey. A World You Can Touch - Need a change of pace? Go sailing, cooking, fishing or find a tavern to relax.
- The retail version includes: a double-sided poster with artwork by Bryce Kho.
Why do estimates differ so much by genre?
In Immutable’s tag estimates, the median ranges from $102,000 for Open World Survival Craft to $1,040 for 2D Platformer. These are estimates for games associated with overlapping Steam tags, not guarantees or clean genre-to-genre forecasts. A single game can appear under several tags, and each tag includes titles with different budgets and production scales. A higher tag median does not by itself mean that genre is a better opportunity for a new game.
The distribution is low for most tags in this dataset: 56 of 107 estimated medians are below $5,000 gross, 81 are below $10,000, and 26 are $10,000 or higher. These are tag medians, not counts of individual games that earned those amounts.
Rank #2
- Stray is a single-player third-person cat adventure game set amidst the detailed, neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity
- Untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity in Stray
- Physical edition comes with 6 Full-Color Art Cards
- Don't miss out on this one-of -a-kind third-person cat adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio for Nintendo Switch.
Market-wide context also needs careful interpretation. Video Game Insights reported that, on Steam through September 30, 2024, indie games accounted for 99% of releases, 58% of units sold, and 48% of full-game revenue. Its full-game revenue measure includes copies sold but excludes in-game spending. Those percentages describe the whole indie market, not a small studio’s expected share. The report also found that Triple-I games generated over half of indie revenue in 2024 year to date, indicating concentration toward larger titles. Its segment analysis excludes some games that sold fewer than 2,000 units and did not fit a segment. Video Game Insights’ 2024 report covers Steam data through that date; it is market context, not a current forecast for an individual release.
Gross revenue is not the developer’s income
A gross sales estimate is only the top of the financial chain. Discounts, regional pricing, bundles, refunds, taxes, platform fees, publisher or investor terms, and production costs can all affect what remains. A studio’s revenue is not automatically profit, and profit is not necessarily the salary or personal income of one developer.
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Immutable models a conversion of its $4,837 cross-tag gross estimate to roughly $1,693–$2,757 for a developer, using a modeled 35%–57% band. This is an illustration based on estimates, not an established payout for a particular game or a guaranteed standard rate. Actual proceeds depend on transaction details and contractual arrangements.
A 2020 Game Developer analysis provides another illustration, but its figures should be read as one selected scenario rather than current universal deductions. For a $108,000 gross case, author Karl Kontus modeled $86,400 after a 20% discount allowance, $77,800 after assumed returns and chargebacks, and $54,400 after a 30% Steam share. Those discount and return assumptions belong to that example. The article’s wider sample was also selective: 3,300 self-published, single-player Steam indie games released after 2018, priced $4.99–$19.99, fully released, and with at least five ratings. Its estimated $13,000 median gross per game is historical perspective, not a current universal benchmark. Read the 2020 Game Developer analysis.
Rank #4
- 🕹️Officially Licensed: Officially licensed Atari titles, ensuring an authentic gaming experience, includes bonus games.
- Portable Gameplay: Powered by 4 AA batteries (not included) or by a USB-C cable (not included). IMPORTANT NOTE: Please use standard non-rechargeable batteries.
- Collector's Item: A must-own for collectors and fans of video games, celebrating Atari's pioneering legacy spanning over 50 years.
- Headphone Jack: 3.5mm headphone jack lets you enjoy Atari on the go on your own privately. Built-in speaker with volume control and brightness adjustment
- 🎯 Iconic Titles: Relive iconic Atari classics like Pong, Yars Revenge, Breakout, Asteroids Centipede, Missile Command, and many more with 100 games in one compact unit.
For a small team, the practical question is therefore not just “How much did the game sell?” but “What remains after the agreements and expenses?” Team salaries, contractor costs, software and hardware, marketing, taxes, recoupment, and development time all affect whether sales support a living. A GDC Vault session overview frames indie finance in terms of pay, revenue shares, burn rate, and income beyond game sales, but does not publish the talk’s underlying figures. The GDC session listing identifies the discussion without supplying a financial model a reader could apply to a new project.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to use these numbers when planning a game
Use the estimates to build scenarios, not to forecast a guaranteed result. A useful comparison should match the game and the figure being compared:
Best Value
- Silent narrative. Mind-solving puzzles.
- No text – No HUD. Only immersion.
- Nature as a game mechanic.
- Includes game manual.
- Languages: English, French, German, and Spanish.
- Platform and time period: Steam versus console or mobile, and lifetime sales versus first-year or year-to-date revenue.
- Population: all releases versus paid games, fully released games, early-access titles, or a defined team-size cohort.
- Statistic and method: median versus average; observed receipts versus a third-party estimate; individual games versus tag-level aggregation.
- Revenue stage: estimated gross, actual receipts, post-platform proceeds, profit after expenses, or personal income.
- Game and business context: tags, price, discount history, units, team size, development budget, and publisher or investor terms.
For a project budget, separate the assumptions instead of treating a market median as a sales target. Estimate possible gross sales, then account for the game’s likely pricing and sales mix, contractual shares, and costs. Test more than one outcome—including a low-sales case—before deciding whether the project can support the team or repay investment. The cited figures cannot predict an unreleased game’s sales or establish a probability of success.
Quick Recap
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