In a limited-time promotion that ran from April 10 to 14, publisher tinyBuild made its medieval graveyard management sim Graveyard Keeper, whose standard price is $19.99, available for free. During the four-day period, the game generated roughly $250 thousand USD in revenue on Steam alone, according to the company’s CEO Alex Nichiporchik.
Graveyard Keeper was originally released for PC in 2018 and later ported to consoles and mobile platforms. In the recent promotion, the title’s PC (Steam), PS4, and Xbox One versions were offered entirely for free, likely as a way to generate buzz for the upcoming sequel, Graveyard Keeper 2, which was announced in conjunction with the free campaign.
Following the start of the promotion, Graveyard Keeper’s Steam version quickly peaked at 46,000 concurrent players, which is more than double the title’s previous record (SteamDB). Additionally, according to tinyBuild’s Nichiporchik, the number of Wishlists for the sequel also surged thanks to the giveaway, reaching 450,000 as of April 14.
Nichiporchik also revealed that Graveyard Keepers generated approximately $250,000 in revenue from DLC sales during the free promotion period. Several DLC packs have been released for the game, offering expanded gameplay and content, and it appears the influx on new players led to a surge in purchases. Additionally, to coincide with the start of base game’s giveaway, all DLC was discounted at 80% off, which undoubtedly further incentivized players to buy.
It seems tinyBuild’s CEO shared these figures following numerous inquiries about whether it’s really worth it to offer a game for free. As he explains (and as Graveyard Keeper’s example demonstrates), the strategy is effective when the game has a lot of DLC. It’s also worth noting that the $250,000 figure shared by Nichiporchik represents revenue from the Steam version alone, so the actual total is likely higher when accounting for console versions.
Graveyard Keeper is available for PC (Steam/GOG), Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, iOS and Android, with the base game and DLC currently on sale on select platforms. A sequel titled Graveyard Keeper 2 is in the works.
