Backpack Battles reached 640 thousand copies sold in the first month of its launch

Backpack Battles is probably one of those indie titles that surprised many this year. In its first month, this auto-battler that revolves around inventory management, reached an impressive 640 thousand copies sold on Steam. PlayWithFurcifer and IndieArk, the teams behind the game, shared these numbers with Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo.

Backpack Battles reached 640k copies sold on April 8th, a month after launching in early access. The game sold 500 thousand copies in the first two weeks, and the remaining 140 thousand were sold in the following two weeks. China is the largest market with 48% of total sales, followed by Japan (11%), USA (10%), Germany (8%) and Russia (3%). Prior to release, the game had more than 500,000 wishlists; Japan and Germany leading the way with 16.3% and 16.2% respectively, followed by the US (15.6%), China (9.9%) and Brazil (6% ).

PlayWithFurcifer highlighted the long-running demo as a key factor in the success of Backpack Battles, which has been available since June 2023. In addition to attracting nearly 19,000 active players, the developers have also released 38 content patches: “The core idea behind this approach was to build a community in early stage. Getting players to try and get interested in your game is not easy for indie developers,” said PlayWithFurcifer.

Another important factor was the game's marketing approach aimed at the Asian market, especially since publisher IndieArk is based in Shenzhen, China. Even before launching into Early Access, Backpack Battles was localized into Chinese and Japanese. IndieArk and PlayWithFurcifer have worked closely with influencers, offering them the ability to stream the game early, and on several occasions have added special content for Asian audiences.

Last but not least, Backpack Battles also came bundled with successful games in other genres. For example, his Slay the Spire bundle sold over 173k copies and the one with Brotato reached 57.8k units: “With a loyal and huge player base in Asia, especially in China for these two amazing titles, both bundles were sold quite well, accounting for about 35% of Backpack Battles' total sales,” said IndieArk.