Slay the Spire 2 is estimated to have made more money than Hollow Knight: Silksong on Steam, and more money than Hades 2, and after only two weeks on sale. When you consider that Hollow Knight: Silksong crashed Steam (and Xbox and PlayStation and Switch) as people clamoured to buy and download it, that success is all the more incredible.
Alinea Analytics estimates that Slay the Spire 2 sold 4.6m copies on Steam in two weeks, earning more than $92m in revenue, according to Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott (I’m not quite sure how the game’s price multiplied by 4.6m gets you $92m, but that’s the figure Alinea has come up with, and because it deals with such things regularly, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.) That revenue is apparently more than Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong have earned in their entire lifetimes on Steam, both with estimated earnings of $83m.
Note, the Slay the Spire 2 sales numbers aren’t official yet. The only official sales number we’ve had for Slay the Spire 2 is 3m, and that was tallied after a week on sale. Alinea is tallying two weeks on sale, so an additional 1.6m sales is certainly conceivable. Also, given Slay the Spire 2 launched into Steam early access on 5th March, we’re now at three weeks on sale, so the tally will be even higher.
Slay the Spire 2 has consistently held fourth place on Steam’s Most Played list through March, which means it’s still being played by a large amount of people – it has a daily high of more than 400,000 concurrent players. It’s also currently sixth in Steam’s top sellers list (down from three last week) suggesting it continues to sell strongly there too. And this is only a single-platform Steam release so other platforms are still to follow, and because it’s only an early access release, it means there’s a 1.0 sales lift still to come. There’s plenty of momentum left.
What magnifies the remarkability (is that a word?) of this success is Slay the Spire 2, like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2, to a degree, is made by such a small team. Mega Crit was founded by two people, Casey Yano and Anthony Giovannetti, and today seems to number 10 people plus a couple of contributors. Silksong’s Team Cherry, meanwhile, has a core of three founders plus maybe one other; and Supergiant made Hades 2 with around 25 people. Each of the games also took considerable time to make: Silksong approximately seven years, Slay the Spire 2 approximately five years, and Hades 2 around four-and-a-half years.
Their successes make a strong case for games being made in a different, less extravagant, and less ballooned way. However, these successes are extraordinary and these games had the benefit of first-game success to support and propel them. For every Slay 2, Silksong or Hades 2, there are hundreds of small indie games which go overlooked. Still, it’s a hopeful kind of success for a games industry so often mired in doom and gloom.
In related news, the Kickstarter campaign for Slay the Spire 2 boardgame expansion Downfall is now live. This expansion lets you turn the game around and play as iconic bosses from the game, such as Slime Boss, Hexaghost, Hermit, and Guardian. It’s already smashed its paltry £40k goal for a current total of nearly £2.6m, and there are 14 days to go.
Notably, this campaign gives you a chance to back-order the original Slay the Spire board game, and in a Collector’s Edition of it – an opportunity I haven’t seen since the first board game was Kickstarted. The Collector’s Edition includes lots of lovely little extras like a cloth merchant money bag and metal coins to go in it. There’s a Collector’s Edition for Downfall as well, and you can buy it alone or bundled with the original game. There’s a Collector’s Bundle for $268 that I’m more than happy to be gifted if you’re wondering about birthday presents for me.
