Articles
All of Evgeny Grishakov's articles on money, marketing and releasing games on Steam, with real numbers.
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How Much Do Indie Games Make on Steam, and How Many Break Even
The typical paid Steam game earns about $1,000, while a handful of hits pull the average up. We break down data on 1,230 games released in January 2026, revenue thresholds, break-even odds and what the games that earn have in common.
How Much Do Mobile Games Make: Ads, Purchases and Our Own Numbers
Most mobile games make almost nothing: in 2025, games outside the top 1% shared 7.5% of in-app revenue. I break down where a mobile game's income comes from, what the stores take, when paid installs pay off and what our games made, from $86 a quarter to thousands of dollars a month.
How Much Does Steam Take From Game Sales, and What the Developer Keeps
Valve takes 30% of a game sale, but counts it after VAT and refunds, and may then withhold US tax on top. Step by step, I show how much of Meltopia's $456,945 Steam revenue reaches us and how to estimate the payout for your own game.
How to See How Much a Game Made on Steam, and How Wrong the Estimate Is
You can't see the exact revenue of someone else's Steam game from the outside, but you can estimate it from reviews. We break down the formula and the tools, and test the method on Meltopia, whose real gross we know.
How to Make a Game with AI: What It Already Does and Where It Breaks
AI can already build a prototype of a small game almost by itself, if you use an agent like Claude Code and a genre built on logic and math. I go through my own prototypes: which games work, where AI breaks, what it costs and whether you can sell the result.
How to Make Your Own Game from Scratch: Stages, Engine, Team and Timeline
Where to start your first PC game, what the development stages are, which engine to pick, whether you can do it alone and without coding, and how long it takes. From my own experience: six failed games before the first profitable one, three tries on Steam before Meltopia, and two ways of working, a small game and a dream game.
How to Market an Indie Game on Steam: What Worked for Us and What Went Nowhere
Steam pushes a game for sales and playtime, not for page traffic. I go through the channels in order: festivals, YouTubers, trailers, social media, ads and mobile user acquisition, with what we spent and got on Meltopia, Silicone Heart and our mobile games.
Do Indie Games Need a Publisher? What an Indie Game Publisher Does and How Much It Takes
A publisher buys the rights to publish your game and takes a third of the revenue or more, and much more until it earns back its investment. I go through fresh data on contracts and our own experience from both sides: Meltopia without a publisher, Silicone Heart with one, and our own console and mobile publishing labels.
$89 for a Summer in China and $900 in 4 Days on GOG: Where to Sell Indie Games Besides Steam
We translated Meltopia into Chinese, launched on GOG and signed key stores. Here is how much each of them brought in, with numbers, including the funny ones.
Steam Next Fest: How to Prepare Your Demo and How Many Wishlists It Brings
A typical game gets a few hundred wishlists from Steam Next Fest, and the result depends on the wishlists you bring and your own traffic. I go through Valve's docs, survey data and our February fest with Meltopia, where the demo went live only on day two.
How Much Do Game Developers Make: Salaries in Russia and Income from Your Own Games
In Russia, the median game developer salary in Habr Career surveys is about $2,030 a month: about $976 for a junior, about $3,540 for a senior. On their own games, two thirds of 2025 Steam releases made less than $1,000. I go through Russian salaries by role, the pay ranges in our own job offers, US and UK figures, and what indie, Roblox and Yandex Games developers earn.
How to Publish a Game on Steam: From Sign-Up to Release, and What It Costs
To publish a game on Steam you pay $100, complete a tax interview, build a store page and a build, and wait for two Valve reviews. I go through the steps, timelines and costs from Valve's documentation as of October 2026 and show what it looked like for our Meltopia launch: 32,000 wishlists and 5,657 copies in the first day.
How to Publish a Game on Yandex Games and How Much It Can Earn
What it takes to publish a game on Yandex Games, Russia's biggest browser game catalog: the offer, the SDK, the ZIP archive, the draft and moderation. How ad and purchase money reaches you and what games really earn there, from Yandex's offer, developers who live on it and our HTML5 publisher Mirra Games.
Steam Wishlists: How Many You Need Before Launch and Where They Come From
Valve has no wishlist threshold, but wishlists decide who gets the launch and discount emails and whether you reach Popular Upcoming. How many you need, what they turn into, and what one wishlist cost us by channel for Silicone Heart and Meltopia.
How to Publish a Game on RuStore and How Much It Can Earn
How to publish a game on RuStore, Russia's Android app store: VK ID sign-up, APK or AAB, the store card and moderation within 72 hours. Who can get paid for purchases now, what RuStore takes, how to get featured and what our games made: about $1,880 from 34 games in July 2025.