What Type of Indie Games Actually Sell Best? (And Why)

Using data analysis and market research, this video explores what genres of game sell the most copies on Steam, as well as what genres are a bad choice for indie developers. We also explore the reasons behind why the most popular games are more successful than the alternatives. 00:29 Steam Data Analysis 01:53 Steam Analysis Results 04:08 Reasons behind the trends 06:12 Indies in the Steam Top 100 07:36 Long-Term Progression 09:08 Summary Sources: Dataset used: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/fronkongames/steam-games-dataset VG Insights Article: https://vginsights.com/assets/reports/VGI_Global_Indie_Games_Market_Report_2024.pdf Crafty Buildy Games Article: https://howtomarketagame.com/2024/12/27/what-are-crafty-buildy-strategy-simulation-games/ Horror game research: https://howtomarketagame.com/2023/10/02/every-indie-game-developer-should-make-a-horror-game/ Talk on "Infinite Unique Situation Generators": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIqz5xmQKnc&t=1391s&ab_channel=GDC2025 Steam Charts: https://steamcharts.com/top Data manipulation and visualisation done using Excel/Python, Pandas and Matplotlib. #indiegames #indiedev #dataanalysis #indiegamedev #indiedeveloper