Yacht Club Games, the developers of Shovel Knight, have compiled sales data to the best of their ability and posted a lengthy, informative blog post detailing the breakdown, with plenty of interesting information.

After a month on sale, Shovel Knight has sold about 180,000 copies, not including the presales from the Kickstarter campaign. The sales breakdown for the full month is here:

Overall, the game has sold well beyond their expectations thus far, and given how fun the game is, I'd say they really deserve the sales. This is a high quality game no matter what the platform.

I'm loving it! Do you think their next project will be a sequel to this, or a different re-de-make-inspired game? If i was a dev, i'd not want to do a sequel, unless maybe i lest alot of ideas on the table that i want to return to

There's no harm in doing a sequel, especially if it's something they want to do and have ideas for. It'll be very interesting to see whatever they do next, regardless! They've shown they have talent, that's for sure.

Interesting how massive Steam is compared to other PC distributors. I definitely would have expected GOG to be higher than Humble.

Anyway, I'll definitely pick the game up during a sale - I like the first six Mega Men, so Shovel Knight seems like it's worth a shot.

Just too bad this game still isn't available on 3DS/Wii U for Europe. Least I don't think it is. Doesn't matter anyway, because the fact that even European kickstarter backers weren't able to play it on their console of choice on day-one is some serious bullshit.

Woah, GoG is not as big as I thought!!!

Shovel Knight is Awesome! ...Good split on the sales too! No one system lost out or dominated. That's real cool!

Also i'm the only dood who bought it on GOG apparently.

It is, just not for new games. Most people will choose Steam over GoG if they have the choice.

I'll be interested to see if GOG Galaxy changes things up.

I just don't see who that's for. People support GOG specifically so they don't have to use an external program to play their games.

I just finished Shovel Knight last night, and it is quite the game. One of the most well-crafted and charming games I've played in a number of years. Glad it is selling well.

I would recommend anyone who has ever appreciated an action platformer to pick up the game. This is a game worth supporting at full price. I played on the 3DS, and I think it's great on there. Just feels right.

I hope we will see a Shovel Knight 2, perhaps as though it had been updated to the SNES. The gameplay is so solid, and they have a lot to build off of from here. Can't wait for what they make next. I'll now likely be on board with any new games this developer decides to put out.

How much revenue is that?

Or is it the same price on all platform so I'm being silly and should just look up the price and multiply it?

Edit: just reading some of this breakdown, video game developers are way over paid. Expecting to have to pay 5k/month a person, as a low ball, is insanely overbloated math to me. I can live easily on a third of that amount (and do).

I really don't understand that stuff sometimes. And I get people have families and what not, but again... as small budget game. Work for less to make the game take more off the earnings, as a bonus or something, when the game sells. Or something. Expecting to have to pay 5k a month just seems crazy to me.

I don't live in an expensive city, though. I do know there is that to account for.

Man, that split is way closer to even than I would've thought. Wii U is only a couple percentage points behind 3DS and Steam, which is surprising given that you'd think the latter two have a larger number of regular users.

Some evidence that wii u is very gradually picking up steam (lol). Good on them.

Not to waste forum space with its own thread, but since I got back into wrestling and watching WWE Network, I haven't had time for quick looks this year. I've watched UPF, and am fully aware of Gang Beats, etc., but only this weekend started downloading 8 or 9 months of quick looks I missed. I'm knocking off the ones for games I heard of (Thief, Lightning Returns) first.

Besides Shovel Knight, what other great but less mainstream games have come out this year?

I stopped following what great indie games were on the horizon after Brothers. PS Play is coming this month, what about any of those games? (Already know Rogue Legacy from PC).

I have every system but Xbox One right now, but I'd be most interested in Vita or 3ds titles.

And what's up with the Double fine kickstarter, one of the episodes I downloaded supposedly has Tim S. revealing it. Is it out soon?

Transistor is from the developers of Bastion. I haven't played it, so I don't know if it's any good. I hear good things.

Which kickstarter are you referring to? Double Fine had a couple. If you mean their adventure game (Broken Age) Act 1 is out and they are currently developing act 2. They had to split it up for various monetary reasons. Act 2 will be a free addition to Act 1 whenever it releases (I assume on all the platforms they have released on, which is several- if not all).

Their RTS game, that Brad Muir is leading, is still in development as far as I know. I don't know much else about that one yet.

On that front Double Fine has released a few games themselves this year as well as publishing one or two games. All look decent, but I haven't had time to get to any of that. I have a humongous backlog I'm still working through and I decided I won't be buying anymore games for a while.

I think you misunderstood.

$30k annual before taxes for 12-18 hrs a day for 7 days a week is definitely not "over paid" by any stretch of the imagination.

That's ridiculously low if they just break even. Fortunately, the game appears to be doing well, and if these sales keep up, they may be able to afford a better employee salary for the next game they work on.

@truthtellah said:

Yeah, they explain that it's not just like, "Here's a cheque for $5,000 each month" to every person on staff. A little bit is shaved off of everybody's $5,000 for like health insurance, paying the office rent and utilities, paying for software licenses, paying lawyer fees, etc. They explain later in that same section that everybody basically took home about $30,000 a year, before any taxes. So they're only getting $2,500 a month, which isn't like super high given how much education and experience you need to work in this field (as in, they're all industry veterans, and probably had slightly higher salary than that when they were still working at...WayForward, was it?).

Though that blog post of theirs did remind me of all the stretch goals that Shovel Knight had, and only like, the first 3-4 obvious ones (song select, Mac and Linux versions, etc.) are actually in the game. Not that I really give a crap about most of those features because I'm just glad the game turned out good and I don't think them adding in local multiplayer is going to sell another hundred thousand copies or anything. I guess they are planning to put those features in with a patch in the near future, to make good on those promises, but I kinda don't think the game needs it at all?

They are effectively making about half of what they likely made at WayForward. For the amount of hours they are working, they should be getting paid closer to $60-70k, not $30k, but as they said, they had to cut down their budget to get the game made.

Still so angry about this. They sent out a cute update status bar for us all last week. Thankfully it seems to have moved a couple of checkpoints forward, but the fact that I didn't know I wasn't getting the version of the game I backed two days before release is indeed bullshit.

http://yachtclubgames.com/2014/07/shovel-knight-international-status/

@truthtellah: Ah, ok. Fair enough. That's what I get for skimming it.

I really wish bigger companies release this kind of info once in a while.

These folks deserve all their success and then some. Shovel Knight is, so far, probably my favorite gaming experience of the year. I'm really excited to see what these Yacht Clubbers do next. Really liking the split on that sales chart, too. I got it on Wii U, personally, which I think is was probably the right move. Having the menus on the gamepad was really cool, and the Miiverse functionality was really well done. I really enjoyed giving posts a "Verily!".

Yeah, it's really low for the amount of work they're doing. I'm just glad the game appears to be doing well so that they may be able to actually pay themselves decent wages for their next project. Indie game development can be pretty rough, especially early on.

I hope Shovel Knight continues to sell well, I plan to add to their tally myself at some point. Game looks legit.

Shovel Knight is in my top 5 for the year right now and seems like a pretty strong contender to stay in the top 10, if not stay in the top 5. It's bang on.

whoa, holy shit, didn't expect wiiu and 3ds having that big of a share

That was a really good read. Made me feel really good to see that they far surpassed their sales expectations after months without pay. Here's hoping they continue to be successful, and I'll be sure to pick up this game now just because I want to support them, haha.

Just wait until there's a steam sale, hopefully they keep being this transparent with their sales, it's really interesting to find out this information.

@onarum: I'm probably showing some bias here but it is the perfect game for a nintendo system. Best directional pads in industry.

@irvandus: a yeah, sure, not saying that it is not deserved, I have a 3ds and love it

I was just really surprised to see that both the 3ds and wiiu sold almost as much as steam, I always half expect steam to just oversell over anything else

The chance for a coop Shovel Knight and Shield Knight adventure is too good to pass up.

Valve did warn them about releasing the game during the Steam Sale. A mostly full price title versus all the super cheap games, but it still got in the top 10 of sales. I'm guessing if it had been in a downtime with few sales, it would have sold even more, but really, it's playing the long game Steam-wise. I imagine it will sell well on Steam for quite some time.

They also heavily promoted it for the Nintendo platforms, and Nintendo helped highlight it. So, it makes sense that it may do better there than you might expect versus being a new game on Steam during the summer sale.

At this point, it sounds like they're only a few thousand away from 200k sales; so, that is pretty cool. Good luck to them on their goal of 1 million!

Because of this thread, I went back and watched Vinny and Alex playing Shovel Knight.

Man, this game is so good. It explains things well and teaches you with minimal tutorializing. You figure things out by the level design, enemy choice, and incentives to experiment. It's just beautifully well done.

This isn't simply indie gaming done right; it's gaming done right.

Cool! I'm very happy for them.

Anyone got any idea when it's coming to 3DS in the UK?

To anyone who has the game on 3DS, how are the controls? I kinda wanna play it on handheld but since a Vita version has not been announced the 3DS is my only option.

Surprised PC is as big as the others when this game was released during steam summer sale.

They're really good. I got it for 3DS, and I think it's perfect for the handheld. It seems to have been made for Nintendo platforms.

If you like 3D, it also does a good job splitting up the plains of the game. The streetpass stuff is a fun addition, as well. Neither of those were too big for me, though; so, the big draw was how well it played on the 3DS.

About a month back, they said translation was coming along for Europe and they were mostly done with ratings. So, as it is their main focus right now, I'd say they're not too far away.

Here is their update page discussing Shovel Knight's international release progress:

http://yachtclubgames.com/2014/07/shovel-knight-international-status/

At the moment, Europe(include UK) looks like this:

@truthtellah: Jeepers, had no idea they were keeping people up to date like that. Thanks dude!

Yeah, I'd say that's one of the things they've done quite well. Many Kickstarter updates and stuff like that page. I've been impressed.

I hope you'll get to enjoy it in the UK soon!

Good for them! Those motherfuckers made one hell of a goddamn video game! Shovel Knight deserves all the praise it gets, and then some.

Oh really? I didn't even know it had streetpass features. What do you get from it?

It's a competitive game where, once you unlock the streetpass arena, you can record a "ghost" of you fighting and collecting gems which others can play against. When you streetpass with them, you play against their ghost, as well. You compete to come up with your best pattern of attack and gem collection.

It's a fun little thing. Not super substantial, but it's something, especially if you know anyone else with the game.

For example, you playing against a ghost of someone you streetpassed:

They are also slowly working on a challenge mode and 4 player battle mode to come later this year on all platforms. Not sure how they will work exactly, but I imagine they may utilize 3DS multiplayer. We'll see. The game is already full-featured as it is, but they're continuing to work on adding in stretch goals that were funded during the Kickstarter campaign.

@truthtellah: Huh, ok. That seems kinda cool. I thought it was something like you'll get bonus items or health from streetpassing though I guess the game probably doesn't need those.

That was a fascinating breakdown. The last 5 months sounded rough. Really informative for anyone who questions the true cost of video games.

I really like the game but I've yet to buy it, simply because I don't know what platform to get it on. At first, the no-brainer option seemed to Steam, but then I figured I might want a good d-pad for the game and I generally use a wired 360 controller for my PC...

Then I considered getting it on Wii U or 3DS but then there was that thing about them saying they'd like to do something equivalent to like a cross-buy thing for the game, so that has also left me paralyzed on what to do. I guess the thing I'd want the most is for it to come to PlayStation and it being PS4/PSV cross-buy cause then I'd snap that up in a heartbeat.

Banner Saga was pretty well-received.

Here's some math

3ds at 33%

180k * .33 = 59400 * $25AUD = THATS MILLION BUCKS