Sensor Tower: Indies were 43% of 2026's 500K-plus launches, up from 24%

Sensor Tower, at the request of GamesIndustry.biz, compared two 12-month cohorts of PC and console games: September 2024 to August 2025, and September 2025 to August 2026. It counted games that sold more than 500,000 units in their first month. The 2026 cohort has 76 such games against 55 in the 2025 cohort, and month-one units sold rose 51%, from 120.5 million to 182.4 million.

Indies drove much of the change. They went from 13 titles (24%) to 33 (43%), and their share of month-one paid units grew from 26% to 38%. Sensor Tower's estimates for the biggest indie launches are Meccha Chameleon at 13.9 million units, How to Fish at 7.9 million, Slay the Spire 2 at 5.9 million, Hollow Knight: Silksong at 5.2 million and Escape from Duckov at 4 million.

New series and original IP also grew. First games in a new series rose from 21 titles (38%) to 40 (53%). Games on original IP went from 44 to 61. Games on completely new IP, meaning not based on an existing franchise, went from 19 to 35, and 27 of those came from indie studios. Sequels still sell more per game, though, and made up 55% of month-one paid units in 2026.

Sensor Tower's Karl Kontus said the indie growth is broader than the low-budget co-op party games he calls "friendslop". Those games produced roughly half of indie first-month sales but were only 9 of the 33 indie hits. He described indie hits as additive to AAA rather than taking share from it, and noted AAA still accounts for nearly half of first-month sales.

On risk, Kontus said original games have a higher ceiling but a lower floor. Only 5 of AAA's 28 hits were brand-new games, so he sees innovation coming mainly from indie and AA. He said he expects AAA to start taking riskier bets again, citing Arc Raiders as an example. That is his view, not a result of the data. The figures are Sensor Tower estimates, and the full report is available from Sensor Tower.