Dwarf Fortress moved almost 500,000 copies on Steam in December 2022, according to official sources. The free-to-play title launched in its public alpha iteration at no cost to the player back in 2006 and would remain available exclusively as such for 16 years in total. In fact, even though the game is now available as a paid title on Steam, those who'd prefer to experience the original can still do so at no charge whatsoever.
Being one of the first mainstream indie games on the market, Dwarf Fortress has made a name for itself in many different ways, not least of which is its penchant for generating unique and strangely riveting narratives on the fly. It's these stories of player ingenuity combined with the game's remarkably in-depth simulation engine that helped Dwarf Fortress grow and which are almost certain to have caused players to become so interested in it.
Even though Dwarf Fortress is available in full as a free-to-play game on PC via the developer's official website, niche as it may be, Bay 12 Games has reported a very successful first month of the game being available for sale. According to Bay 12's recent post on the official forum, the game moved just under 500,000 copies within a single month of being available on Steam. In practical terms, this means that December 2022 has been the single most profitable month Dwarf Fortress and Bay 12 Games have ever had.
This isn't overly surprising news, of course. Those who've kept track of the game will have already known that Dwarf Fortress has been hitting sales milestones for weeks now, earning the developers enough money to continue supporting the game for the foreseeable future. It is unlikely to be finished anytime soon, but the nature of its simulation systems means that it already provides plenty of gameplay and progression variety by default.
Since Dwarf Fortress essentially kickstarted the management sim genre, it's the original inspiration for titles such as Factorio and Rimworld, both of which have found substantial success over the years. In comparison, DF is a far more in-depth type of simulation, though this also means that its specific gameplay loop is more vague and free-form than that of its modern competitors. Quite simply, it's a game about the survival of a player's dwarves. What happens elsewise is anyone's guess.
Late in November, Dwarf Fortress developers spoke with Game ZXC about the continued development of the game and what major improvements may be coming next. Long-time players may be thrilled to hear that magic systems and god pantheons will be the next big thing, promising to add a whole new dimension to what is already one of the biggest games ever created.
Dwarf Fortress is available on PC.
Source: Bay 12 Games
