Why Indie Games are triving compared to AAA by Wen Yue Wee S4098838

Types of Indies

Indies are segmented into 4 groups, each having their unique quirks, such as triple I being funded well and can even match AAA games in terms of quality, and Hobbyists which are individuals making games for fun instead for profit

Indie games on steam has matched the ratings of AAA games

Although the average rating for indie games has not increased by much for the past few years, due to the complacency of AAA studios, their games have declined in quality as a result. Players have noticed this and have been calling these companies out and giving bad reviews.

Indies are eating up market share

The start of 2020 has led to the explosive growth in popularity for indie games. Historically, AAA games have always held a larger share of the overall game market but the decrease in quality for AAA has lead to Indies starting to match or even surpass them

Indies are eating up market share

The growth of indies has been spearheaded by Triple I developers

As Triple I indies can usually match the quality of AAA, this has made it very appealing as the quality of AA has been declining while the opposite is true for indies. Especially when the price of indie games is much more accessible then AAA

Indie Revenue Growth in 2024 was largely driven by big hits like Wukong and Palworld

These 2 Triple I games has been topping steam charts ever since their release.All other 2024 indie releases (excluding Wukong & Palworld) combined generated less revenue than Wukong on its own

Average Revenue per Indie Game Based on How Many Games a Studio Had Released Before

The amount of revenue and popularity indies gain keeps building up as they start to produce multiple games. For example Palworld isn’t Pocketpair’s first game but it by far their most popular and successful game

Palworld (>$400M) VS 4 previous games (<$15M combined)