When Dear Esther turned a profit in six hours it was already obvious that it would exceed expectations. Dear Esther's Indie Fund backers were originally unsure about funding Dear Esther, but it looks like their faith has been well placed. It sold 16,000 copies on Steam on day one. A week on, it's sold more than 50,000.
Developers, Thechineseroom made their sales public over on the Dear Esther blog , saying that the 50,000 figure is "an extraordinary amount for an indie release."
"It shows that there's a real audience for this type of work, and responses have been amazing. Not only have we received amazingly positive reviews, but the response from fans has been outstanding," they add. You can read our thoughts in the PC Gamer Dear Esther review .
Dear Esther's success is bound to inspire others interested in crafting contemplative, narrative games, but also proves that this sort of work can draw a profit. It helps that the chineseroom have pushed the Source engine far enough to create the extraordinary screenshots and evocative trailers that piqued player interest ahead of release. Dear Esther has elegantly paired artistic intent with strong technical ability to create a package polished enough to justify that price tag. Hopefully other indie developers looking to replicate Dear Esther's success can pull off the same trick. PC gaming will be the richer for it.
