---
title: 'Why 96% of Indie Games Make No Money'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=KtOuHE0srNc'
video_id: 'KtOuHE0srNc'
date: 2026-07-15
duration_sec: 439
---

# Why 96% of Indie Games Make No Money

> Source: [Why 96% of Indie Games Make No Money](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KtOuHE0srNc)

## Summary

The video discusses why the vast majority of indie games fail financially, citing market saturation and the need for effective marketing and audience building. The creator shares personal success stories and strategies to stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.

### Key Points

- **Market Saturation** [00:17] — Over 9,000 games were released on Steam in 2020, 10,000 in 2021, 12,000 in 2022, and 14,000 in 2023, with numbers expected to rise.
- **Average Earnings** [00:43] — Most indie games earn about $11,000 in lifetime earnings, while the creator's first two games grossed over a million dollars combined.
- **Industry Layoffs and Efficiency** [01:40] — The game industry is laying off people, but tools are making game development cheaper and faster, with small teams (e.g., two full-timers) using assets and AI.
- **Go Super Indie** [02:35] — To survive, developers must stay small, effective, and fast, leveraging assets from Unity Asset Store, Epidemic Sound, TurboSquid, etc.
- **The Trinity Hook** [03:19] — A game needs three hooks: story, mechanical, and visual. Use the 'big butt principle' (e.g., 'Metroid but with bugs') to create compelling hooks.
- **Build an Audience** [04:52] — Having an audience (e.g., 10,000 views per post) ensures income through sponsorships, Patreon, ad revenue, email lists, and Steam wishlists.
- **Audience as Insurance** [06:11] — Building an audience and creating content is an insurance policy for game developers, providing stability during tough times.

### Conclusion

Success in indie game development requires mastering cheap production, a strong hook, and audience building. The creator emphasizes that these strategies are essential to survive the coming industry challenges.

## Transcript

about game development and I figured I'd throw in my two cents considering well thousands of dollars of my own money creating commercial Indie Games called Twisted Tower and yeah it's a huge gamble considering the state of the
video talks about why so many indie game developers fail look over 9,000 games were released on Steam in 2020 10,000 in 2021 12,000 in 2022 14,000 in 2023 so
you think is going to happen in 2024 yeah it's going to be Madness so what does this mean for you it means that if you're using what marketing Guru Jeff Walker is calling hope marketing
other game developers are making and that's about $11,000 in lifetime earnings as for me my first and second games combined brought in over a million bucks gross revenue and no that's not just Steam and that's kind of my point
so let's talk about what I do to ensure I'm I'm not making no money as a game developer and by the way if you want to go deeper into all of this I have a ton description I've got a free Workshop about how to make 100k with just demo
and yes I've actually done this three different times how to get a publisher for your game or even my course about the handful of ways to make money as an indie you can check them all out below they might treat to you all free I just
want to see you succeed okay let's go have you noticed that the game industry is firing a bunch of people it's pretty sad but it's happening sure this is due to the sucky economic conditions but I
believe that there's kind of a secret ground swell going on the industry is realizing something games are getting easier to make heck right now my team size for Twisted Tower is just two full-timers that includes me and Felipe
part-time developer all right so how am I doing this well I use a bunch of assets from the unity assets store I use music from epidemic sound and artless doio I use models from turbos squid textures from textures.com and I work
tasks done game development tools are just too effective right now and that includes the new AI tools that are currently being added to Unity and unreal these tools are going to become the standard and sadly even things like
voice acting music code these are all going to be instantaneously created with a single text prompt with almost no money game development is getting cheap survive the industry you got to go super
Indie that means stay small stay effective and get stuff done fast but Thomas the AAA industry has massive teams well again look at what's happening the AAA industry is scaling back a lot I wouldn't be surprised if
the size of AAA teams became so small that basically every Studio started that basically every Studio started looking like Indie that you've figured out how to produce games cheaply using AI tools using
assets using just the great software available to everyone that's not enough now you need to master marketing games despite the massive sea of indie games and what I'm going to call zombie games AKA AI games and asset flip games that
are almost certainly going to flood the Steam Market in 2025 so here's what you need to do to stand out I need you to figure out your game's hook AKA what grabs people's attention the easy way to do this is what I'm going to call the
Trinity hook this is your story hook your mechanical hook and your visual hook draw a freaking triangle fill in the blanks and stick to it do not deviate from this Trinity hook every decision you make for your game should
Circle back to these three hooks but here's the kicker be sure that your hooks are actually hooks right a fast and simple way to do this is just to use what I call the big butt principle for example
example Metroid but with bugs stardew Valley but with Cults first person shooter but puzzles do you get it take a well-known puzzles do you get it take a well-known genre game or style and then add a
little twist it works every time use this principle to fill in your Trinity hook and ensure that your game hearkens to this over and over and over again to to this over and over and over again to reiterate you do marketing so that your
game stands out you create an awesome hook so that your game stands out most the elements of the Trinity hook your goal is to diversify instead of focusing on one single hook hey focus on three then hopefully one or maybe even all
three will actually be a good hook and Propel you into the atmosphere and make Propel you into the atmosphere and make you a full-time salary as an indie game
being able to produce games cheaply and you've also mastered your Trinity hook what's the next fail safe what is the final and most effective fail safe to ensure you don't launch your game and make no money it's called an audience I
want you to build an audience see if you have an audience not for your game but for you yourself you've pretty much locked in a salary as a full-time game developer forever as long as you keep making content I mean seriously if you
can guarantee 10,000 views minimum on a YouTube video or a social post this means that you can effectively get 500 bucks every time you do an ad read for a sponsorship get $500 to $2,000 on patreon a month launch your own game
development program that's what I do secure ad Revenue that's what I do build a massive email list that you can ping every time you have a crowdfunding secure funding from a massive publisher build up your wish list on Steam to over
10,000 which is likely enough to sell your game enough for a full-time salary that's what I do and by the way if this all sounds silly fake gimmicky or an afterthought please please reconsider that it's insanely important to Master
building an audience in this new frankly terrifying era of indie game development it's what I'm doing right now with this video yes yes I'm a sleazy salesman
video building an audience creating content for social media it's basically an insurance policy for game developers you make games and you make content about those games you build an audience
the dark days of game development you're going to have dark days as a game developer where you're pinch and Penny you're going from paycheck to paycheck that's okay that's normal that's what it means to be an entrepreneur and that's
my plan that's what I've been doing for the last decade to ensure that I make think you can do it too and if it sounds like it's a lot well it is but I'm just telling you what I do and I'm being completely transparent here with AI on
here it's here with it being on the horizon we've got to learn to leverage leverage marketing and the hooks for our game we need to leverage the new AI
technology or just great technology that's being created for game development tools and let's be completely honest even this video even this video is one of my many ways to protect myself and my team from the
coming winter in the game development industry