How to get ahead of 83.5% of indie Steam devs in 2025

I see a lot of anxiety and despair lately from indie devs stumbling through 2025, and I have to admit it's wearing me down too. Having released my first commercial game "Super Space Arcade" last week to little fanfare, it feels like I'm walking through a bombed-out, apocalyptic hellscape of sobering realities and increasingly more questions than answers.

But don't fret, here am I, wearing my party hat and a maraca, trying to lighten the mood and revitalize your hip swing for carnival season. I'm not coming alone, I'm here with five actual fucking facts about indie game dev to get your mood up.

Release not one, but two games

Approximately 70–80% of indie developers on Steam release only one game and never create another. So if you ignore the motivation behind this move, effectively this means that it's basically many people's bucket list item to "release game on Steam" and then they just quit. But most successful indie developers have released several games, which of course makes total sense — it needs practice to "git gud" and learn how to read the market, build an audience, etc.

Make a second game and leave 80% of indie devs behind you.

Sounds doable, no?

Get 10 reviews on your game

Approximately 30–40% of indie games on Steam get fewer than 10 reviews in their lifetime. This aligns with data from sources like Steam Spy and Steamworks, which reflect the extreme difficulty many games face in gaining visibility.

Maybe don't ask your grandma to sign up for Steam to write a review (unless she's really big on Twitch or finished Elden Ring) but you should probably ask almost everyone else — if you don't ask, you won't get anything. The reason why so many YouTubers ask viewers to "like and subscribe" at the end of their videos is that it actually works, it reminds people of that option and increases the likelihood that someone will smash those buttons.

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Earn $10k revenue

According to Gamalytic, only around 25% of developers make more than $10k revenue on their game. This is a much more achievable goal than shooting for the stars and should still be reason to celebrate. You've then left 75% of game devs behind you. Invest that 10k on beans and rice and you've practically financed your next game. 🤯

Actually finish that game

According to Global Game Jam & Game Dev Surveys, around 70% of participants never finish their projects beyond prototypes. So by just wrapping your game up and releasing it, you're differentiating yourself from a lot of other developers.

To me, this is extremely hard. Of course, there are plenty of dabblers out there and people who just don't really have the motivation or ego to ask for attention for the little thing they made, and that's totally fine. But the real sucker here is called perfectionism. The fear of other people's opinion about your game.

The best mindset here is the same one people give to aspiring YouTubers being afraid of nasty comments on their videos: "Most people just won't care about you." This sounds heartbreaking 💔 but is actually not only very true, but with a little change of perspective means you'll have plenty of time to improve at your craft before anyone really takes note.

Conclusion

So if you're asking yourself how those numbers add up to 83.5% your guess is as good as mine, but it certainly shows you don't need to be good at math to make games.

Just like other entertainment industries, the games industry is a hit-driven one — and it's easy to get caught up in other peoples success stories and develop unreasonable expectations. Just don't listen to them and stake out your own little turf and let your freak flag fly. Remember, creative work thrives on originality and passion, not on following popular influencers listicles to a T and then expecting a calculated result, it's not a math equation.

6th tip

105% of all indie devs are doing amazing work and are secretly admired by their peers, because they make themselves vulnerable in public with their creative drive, being able to concentrate for prolonged amounts of time, and spend a portion of their lifetime bringing joy to others. 🤯 I mean, holy shit, right?

Give yourself a pat on the back from time to time and cut yourself some slack.

So if you stay hydrated and keep carrying scissors with the tip down, you might live just long enough to attract the right people to carve out a little space for yourself — and make some people smile along the way.