Small studios are winning the top awards and selling millions
Juries and players are rewarding games from small teams sold at $20 to $50, under the big franchises' prices. That gives small studios a path that runs on acclaim rather than budget, though the sales charts still belong to the franchises.
What is a small team?
Video Game Insights sorts indie studios on Steam by size, as a rule of thumb: hobbyists are one or two people, small teams about 3 to 15, the middle market about 15 to 50, and 'Triple I' indies 50 or more, big and well funded teams making games that match AAA quality.
Where it stands
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the first game from a French studio, won nine of The Game Awards in December 2025 and sold 8 million copies in its first year. Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong took two more of those awards. Slay the Spire 2 sold more copies than any Steam game in March 2026, on Alinea's estimate. The charts still belong to franchises, and teams of 3 to 15 took a shrinking share of indie revenue on Steam.
Timeline
2016
One developer's farming game sells a million in two months
Eric Barone, as ConcernedApe, releases Stardew Valley on PC after four years of making it alone, teaching himself its music, art and programming. It passes 1 million copies sold within two months.
ConcernedApe, Stardew Valley press kit (read 20 October 2026)
2021
Hades beats The Last of Us Part II at the BAFTAs
Supergiant's Hades wins Best Game at the BAFTA Games Awards, plus four more prizes, over Half-Life: Alyx, Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II.
2023
Vampire Survivors wins Best Game over Elden Ring
The BAFTA jury gives Best Game to Vampire Survivors, from the studio poncle, over Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, which took six awards that night.
2024
Balatro sells 119,000 copies on Steam on its first day
Balatro, a poker card game made by the developer LocalThunk, takes more than $600,000 on Steam in its first hours and sells 119,000 copies there by the end of launch day, by its maker's own account.
Balatro wins three Game Awards
Balatro wins Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie and Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards.
2025
Balatro passes five million copies
Less than a year after launch, Balatro passes five million copies sold, the same figure Mortal Kombat 1 had just reached after launching four months earlier.
Team Cherry sells 7 million copies of Silksong at $20
Team Cherry sells more than 7 million copies of Hollow Knight: Silksong in just over three months at $20, not counting players on Xbox Game Pass.
A debut game wins Game of the Year
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the first game from the French studio Sandfall Interactive, wins Game of the Year, Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie among nine awards at The Game Awards. Hades II wins Best Action and Hollow Knight: Silksong Best Action/Adventure.
Expedition 33 earns more on Steam than most 2025 blockbusters
GameDiscoverCo ranks Expedition 33 close behind Battlefield 6, Monster Hunter Wilds and ARC Raiders among 2025's new Steam games by revenue, in a top 20 where it estimates every game grossed more than $50 million on Steam.
2026
A $25 early-access game outsells every Steam release in March
Alinea Analytics estimates Slay the Spire 2 sold 5.3 million copies on Steam in March, its early-access debut, against nearly 2 million for Pearl Abyss's Crimson Desert. It had made $108 million on Steam by early April.
Expedition 33 passes 8 million copies in a year
Sandfall announces that Expedition 33 has sold more than 8 million copies in its first year. It is only the second game to win Game of the Year at all five major award shows, after Baldur's Gate 3.
Consequences
012024
Hits come on a studio's second or third try
Video Game Insights finds an indie studio's first game averages $120,000 on Steam, its second $168,000 and its third or later $209,000, and that more indie studios than ever are releasing second and third games.
Sensor Tower VGI, Global Indie Games Market Report 2024 (October 2024)
022025
Small studios price under the big games
Expedition 33 launched at $50. Kepler Interactive's Matthew Handrahan says that as big-budget prices rise, there is more room for 'sensibly scoped' games priced at $40 to $50.
032025
The studio that won will not grow
Sandfall says it has no plans to grow, because its team is just the right size for a full-price turn-based game. Outside partners handled testing, translation and marketing.
042026
Developers hold them up as the cure for timidity
A 2026 DevGAMM workgroup hosted by Rami Ismail names Expedition 33, Balatro and Peak as examples of the courage the industry has lost, and calls the industry's fear of risk the largest risk it faces.
Objections
Counterpoint2024
Within indie, the money is going to the biggest teams
Video Game Insights finds small teams of about 3 to 15 people took 36% of indie game revenue on Steam in 2020, 29% in 2023 and 20% in 2024 to September, while teams of 50 or more went from 18% to 23% and then 53%.
Sensor Tower VGI, Global Indie Games Market Report 2024 (October 2024)
Counterpoint2025
The year's US charts are all franchises
Battlefield 6 is the best-selling game of 2025 in the US on Circana's count, with NBA 2K26 second and Borderlands 4 third. On PC the top-grossing games were Battlefield 6, Monster Hunter Wilds and Borderlands 4.
GameDev Reports, Dmitriy Byshonkov, relaying Circana (31 January 2026)
Counterpoint2026
A subscription carried part of the risk
Expedition 33 launched on Xbox Game Pass on day one and stayed there, and Circana's Mat Piscatella says its sales potential was likely increased by being in the service.
Counterpoint2026
The winner says it is not that small
Sandfall's creative director Guillaume Broche says that by budget the studio is 'definitely more towards triple-I', and that he would rather the indie awards had gone to a smaller studio. It won both.
What to watch
2026
The 2026 Game Awards nominees
Mid-November 2026, when The Game Awards names its 2026 nominees. Whether a game from a small studio reaches the Game of the Year shortlist again.
2026
The 2026 Game Awards
10 December 2026, when The Game Awards hands out its prizes. Whether a small studio wins Game of the Year for a second year, and who takes Best Independent Game.
2027
Circana's full-year 2026 chart
Late January 2027, when Circana usually publishes its full-year US sales chart. Whether any small-team game breaks into a top that was all franchises in 2025.
GameDev Reports, Dmitriy Byshonkov, relaying Circana (31 January 2026)
Further reading
- PrimaryThe Balatro Timelinelocalthunk.com
- DataSlay the Spire 2: One of the best indie Steam launches of all timealineaanalytics.substack.com
- ReportingClair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio doesn't plan on expanding its scale of development. "We're just the right size for a full-price turn-based RPG"automaton-media.com
Where to follow it GameDiscoverCo, Alinea Analytics, The Game Awards, BAFTA Games, Circana, Video Game Insights
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