Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue

X
News

Shovel Knight Developer Breaks Down Its Impressive Sales Numbers

by Kyle Hilliard on Aug 05, 2014 at 02:44 PM

A new blog from Yacht Club games, the developer behind Shovel Knight, breaks down the game's sales in detail.

You will find all kinds of interesting information like Yacht Club's estimates for sales, how it arrived at those numbers, how much it approximately cost to make the game in full, and how the game sold.

In short, Shovel Knight exceeded Yacht Club's estimations. Despite launching at full price during the summer Steam sale on PC, and against Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U, the game sold about 75,000 copies during its first week. PC players bought the most copies at 38% during that first week, with 3DS players taking up 35% of sales, and Wii U taking up 27%. After its Kickstarter, Yacht Club assumed PC buyers would swamp the Nintendo buyers, but it was a pretty close race overall. After a month of availability, the game has cracked 180,000 copies sold.

You can find the full breakdown blog by heading here.

For more on the development of Shovel Knight, head here. For our review of Shovel Knight, head here.

[Source: Yacht Club Games]

 

Our Take
These kinds of statistics are super fascinating, especially since very few developers or publishers are willing to share them. I count myself among the 35% of 3DS players (I go handheld when I have the option), and I had a great time with the game. I'm excited the team has seen success and I can't wait to see what it has in store for the future.