Hello, I'm just wondering, is it reasonable to expect around 1500 sales a year for an indie game?

Who here thinks they can sell around 1500 copies in a year? And what is the price of your game.

I'm asking because at $15/copy, I will be able to cover all expenses and make a little profit.

Thanks!

It really depends on the game and on your ability to sell it. But here are some numbers:

1500 sales a year is 125 sales per month which is about 4 sales per day (comes out to 1440 this way). To get 4 sales per day, at a conversion rate of 1% (which is average I reckon) you need to get 400 downloads. Taking a more realistic conversion rate of 0.1% (well, that's probably what you'll start with at least) raises it to 4,000 downloads. These are very rough calculations based purely on statistics, but they do give you some idea of what you can expect. Oh and depending on the quality and value of the game you can sell it for $20. From what I gather, raising the price has no negative effect on sales. Sometimes it can even increase them.

Don't think it's easy to sell that much games in one year. I don't even think it's easy to sell 1500 games in all years. The main problem with my game is that i don't get enough downloads/day for the demo version. Conversion rate is good,probably >1%.

What kind of game are you looking at selling?

I think thats an unusually high sales figure, unless it really is the best indie game for years.

For someone just starting, 1500 sales/year is an almost impossible result to reach, unless your game is really outstanding.

I guess a more realistic figure would be something around 360-480 sales (that is about 30 sales a month that is still a good result! I wish I could have that...!)

YMMV. I think PopCap easily beat 1500 in their first year. My guess is that Dope Farmer might do it as well (but was it the first year?). Depending on the game and a ton of other factors you might hit 1500.

Estimate 300, aim for 3k (or 30k ..) and accept whatever the outcome is.. :)

Popcap is a big company of over 10 employee... not really like the average indie dev ;)
Dope farmer was sold at 8$... half the price of what Mman want to sell his product.

Well, what kind of game you're talking about Mman? :P now I'm curious...!

Hello, thanks for the replies.

I'm talking about an average indie game, like say Fitznik or more of an arcadish type game.

Dexterity used to advertise $1000-$10000 per month, so I thought other publishers could pull it off as well.

I by no means ment 1500 sales all by myself, but maybe through a publisher....but then a publisher would have to sell a lot more than that in order for me to get the same results becuase they take a big percentage.

Originally posted by Mman
Hello, I'm just wondering, is it reasonable to expect around 1500 sales a year for an indie game?


Certainly, a good indie game should sell at least that.

I have 6 games that sell at least 1500 copies a year (of course some of them sell a lot more than that).

It takes time, dedication, persistence, marketing skill, and, of course, good games that people want to play.

I agree with Tom. Certainly possible. Harder when you're just starting as you don't have a customer base but selling 1500 or more through a publisher is very doable. Selling 1500 on your own is a little tougher but many people do just that. Depends on the games and how well you handle the marketing.

Well I personally think that:
1) for a indie just starting with NO experience, 1500 is nearly impossible alone.
2) using a good publisher, and of course if the game is great, you can reach 1500 easily.
3) even if the game is really good, doing it alone without any reputable publisher, is hard to reach 1500 in the FIRST year

Hi,
to put my two cents worth,

I think that without a publisher on the side there is more then a real chance you will not sell that much games,

That is offcours for a begginer indy developer-

The truth is that making games and selling games are two totally diferent things, and most indy dev. are computer oriented people and know little to nothing of the bussines and econmy side of the job.
This, they (me included) learn with months and years of tryng to sell their games well after their first title was done and made..