Frostpunk sells over 1.4 million copies in its first year

Frostpunk’s world may be cold, but its sales have been anything but frigid, as 11 Bit Studios reveals that the postapocalyptic survival sim-city builder has sold over 1.4 million copies since its release one year ago today.

A studio rep said that Frostpunk, which surged to more than 250,000 copies sold just three days after release, had its best performance in the United States. Console versions are coming later this year.

Sims remain a popular genre on PC, especially in the indie space where 11 Bit Studios thrives. In 2016, farming sim Stardew Valley had more than 1 million copies sold, and that was before it appeared on other platforms. And Cities: Skylines, the city-builder from Paradox Interactive, has had more than 6 million copies in lifetime sales since its 2015 release. It’ll be interesting to see how a console release boosts these sales.

11 Bit said it took three years to make Frostpunk, though, “Technically, more than four years but the first prototype was chucked into the garbage and Frostpunk as it is now took a full three years.” And it recouped those development costs in the first 66 hours of last April’s launch.

It figures

A studio rep said while they didn’t have hard numbers on what 11 Bit expected to sell before launch, they did say that the 1.4 million-copy figure “far surpassed their original expectations.”

The studio also shared that:

• 43.8% of players finished the main campaign
• 59% of players chose the path of Faith
• 2.9% of players failed in Serenity mode (just like producer Marek Ziemak).

“You might think there’s more information to that last stat and there certainly is! Marek Ziemak — a producer at 11 Bit Studios responsible for Moonlighter and more — always had a tough time building a stable economy and keeping his citizens satisfied in Frostpunk,” 11 Bit Studios said in a press release. “Sadly, he couldn’t even find success in the game’s easiest version, Serenity Mode. The dev team found this amusing enough that they even created an achievement, lovingly titled ‘Hi Marek!’ with an icon picturing a mildly irritated Marek.”

But 11 Bit is giving Marek the last word here.

“Frostpunk is one of the most satisfying projects I have ever seen in creation, but I still find it challenging to play. It’s just like my job as a producer! Sometimes, when you lead and focus on creating something beautiful, the people under your charge might not always love every decision you have to make.”

Even if you struggle in Serenity mode.