'A huge win in my book': The feel-good math behind a 25,000-copy indie hit

Plus: EA’s fine print reveals a shrinking U.S. workforce and a growing one abroad

Titanium Court. Screenshot: AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller

What’s an impressive sales number for a video game? What’s a number big enough to cheer?

A little over one year ago, the publisher of the upstart role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 announced that the game had sold 3.3 million copies in its first 33 days of release.

That was cheeky and remarkable. Clair Obscur was a surprise hit.

Last week, the developers of Subnautica 2 announced that their game had sold two million copies in less than a day.

That was a show of confidence, too (and a sign that a major payout to the studio’s founders and CEO could be on the way).

So, what to make of the news late last week that Titanium Court, an indie, grand-prize winning comedy kingdom simulator (I mean, it’s a tile-matching war game (sorry, it’s an adventure within a play within a game))) had sold 25,000 copies in just over two weeks?

The number was smaller than the figures that dev studios and publishers usually brag about, but both parties tell Game File that it’s really good news.

“25K is more than any of my previous releases have sold, so in that way it absolutely exceeded my expectations!” Titanium Court designer AP Thomson told me over email.

“My goal with commercial releases has always been to sell enough to allow me to make my next game at my own pace, and Titanium Court's success looks like it's going to give me a significant amount of runway to that end.”

The 25,000 isn’t just great for Thomson and his $15 game but for others as well.

Chris Wright, founder of the game’s publisher Fellow Traveller, told Game File that he now believes Titanium Court “should be profitable enough for us over time to fund another 2-3 bets of a similar size.”

He broke down what he was expecting vs. what happened.