Choice of Rebels is an outlier–a long game in a very popular genre. But I’m pleased and embarrassed to note that it sold around 24,000 copies in its first year, from Nov 17 to Nov 18, and has sold another 2,500 or so since then.
22 Likes
Well god damn. You are one incredibly humble dude because if my game sold 24k in one year, I’d run around the streets telling random people. And I’d set an alarm clock each night to send mass-texts to my friends and family reminding them that I sold a shitload of copies.
Oh, and I would paint “my game sold 24k copies” on the side of my car, and make my voicemail say, “My game sold 24k copies.”
21 Likes
That is nothing to be ashamed of! That’s excellent! And if I ran the math correctly, that’s a phenomenal return on investment. It’s also quite inspiring to know that something like that is possible through CoG. When you’re unpublished, you never quite know what exactly your return will be. Numbers like that help unpublished writers realize that CoG games are truly more successful than we’re aware of.
6 Likes
Wow. Just… Wow.
2 Likes
Does that mean you’ve made like $33,000 in royalties from one game? You’re lowkey the GOAT around here. We knew you were good but damn. 
10 Likes
Wow. Just got the latest royalty statement and added the numbers up. Fallen Hero has sold 20 619 copies since launch a year and three months ago! Not bad for a first game!
Yes, I never added up the numbers before, thank you for giving me an excuse to.
@Mary_Duffy Your terms are indeed super generous, I’ve got no complaints, I’ve signed enough contracts to know a good one when I see it.
21 Likes
CCH1 has sold between 25-27k units, but I honestly lost track when CoG switched to the new royalty statements in 2017 so that’s why I have a range.
CCH2 has sold 11.8K units, and I’m at the 1-year point on that one. I guess I’m happy(ish) with a 40% or so readthrough rate. But I really can’t afford for that rate to dip much for Part 3 if it’s going to be economically viable.
11 Likes
In my opinion, the fact that you’re doing another sequel is a good thing. Most sequels are going to be hit-or-miss because people will always compare it to the original. We all can’t have the Shrek 2 and Shrek 3 success we want.
3 Likes
And at one of the higher price points to boot. I know there’s a couple of other really large and long-simmering stories going through the publication process right now, hopefully some of them can at least partially mirror such smashing success.
@Mary_Duffy Wouldn’t one major difference between y’all and a traditional publisher be that they have to spend money continually on a popular book due to the need to shell out to reprint books as they sell, whereas for you the initial outlay, while considerable, is largely the only expenditure you have whether a story sells 200 copies or 20,000? Doesn’t help at first but does mean once a story has earned enough to cover that $1,000 for a HG and whatever the amount is for a CoG, all the copies sold after that aren’t costing you much beyond the large cut to the platform and the smaller one to the writer.
That being said, I’m still happy with the company’s rates; if it didn’t deal fairly it wouldn’t have so many repeat authors, after all. But for comparison sake we’d probably have to look at other online-only or IF publishers rather than companies whose sales are still significantly reliant on books that have to be physically produced.
5 Likes
I think a positive here is that, even from this relatively small sample size, we have both CoG and HG brands represented, and we have authors writing in different genres, which ought to be encouraging for anyone else starting out, like the OP. (Had to circle this back around to the OP!)
10 Likes
Yeah, I am working hard on getting two of my friends to start writing, that’s how good my experience has been.
10 Likes
Sort of. Electronic vs dead tree doesn’t mean it’s totally free. We do have overhead, too.
13 Likes
Not quite, the various sales have taken a bite out of that. But it’s definitely paid for the coffee that went into its writing, which was my target. 
I’ve actually trained my children to sing, “My daddy’s game sold 24k,” but they don’t come on the forums, so I get to look humble here.
30 Likes
After doing this for 7+ years, I can say to those looking to write for CoG/HG/HC is to build up a library of games and find ways to stay in touch with your readers. I have 3 games out, some with multiple parts, and 3-5 more out in the next 2 years. Each game pays royalties, and along with Patreon, it adds up. It’s also A LOT of work.
Edit: I’ll add that last year I made $40,000+ from writing for the first time.
27 Likes
According to my last royalty statement Unnatural has sold 8,088 copies. But I cant remember where but someone told me that the figures given are the average worked out from total sales.
I really need to get my next game out. I’d love to be able to put out as much games as others but a combination of bad luck and a busy job really stifles creativity
6 Likes
Seeing the incredible numbers from a few of the best-sellers here is both inspiring and depressing. 
If I don’t sell 10k titles in a year with my next HG, I’ll have to consider selling my soul to Satan.
4 Likes
Werewolves: Haven Rising has sold 12,780 copies in the 9 months it’s been out. I wasn’t planning on mentioning numbers, but since others did? 
And yes, as many others have mentioned, the terms here are incredibly generous compared to most publishers.
10 Likes
I think it is really great to see these numbers. When I was figuring out my contract stuff when I first came aboard CoG I had no idea about sales figures. I hope new and upcoming writers can benefit from hearing this stuff, and I hope they won’t be shy about asking specifics.
12 Likes
I’ll suck it up and do mine too, to let y’all know the lower end. Nuclear Powered Toaster is at 828 copies after six months. It either has made HG their money back or will before the year is out, but it definitely pooped the bed sales-wise.
12 Likes
Two thoughts here:
1: Your game entry has sold 828 more copies than mine … just having the courage to push through is an accomplishment.
and
2: Your experience with that game has led to your current project and it reflects enough growth and progress that I predict sales 10x that you had with the first game.
15 Likes