Soulstone Survivors
GameBy Game Smithing
4 documents in the library are about Soulstone Survivors, from writers such as How To Market A Game and GameDiscoverCo. Each has a summary and key insights with the page they come from.
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On Steam
Steam estimates as of 9 Oct 2026. Revenue is premium revenue on Steam only: game sales, without DLC.
- Revenue to date
- $6.5M
- Units sold
- 807K
- Last 12 months
- $831K
- 77K units
- Price
- $14.99
- Positive reviews
- 91%
- of 27K reviews
- Peak players
- 19K
- at the same time
- Followers
- 57K
- Average playtime
- 34 h
| Year | Share of the best year | Revenue | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $1.9M | 238K | |
| 2023 | $1.7M | 231K | |
| 2024 | $1.0M | 145K | |
| 2025 | $1.5M | 156K | |
| 2026 so far | $391K | 37K |
On Steam since Nov 7, 2022 · Developer Game SmithingSteam store page
Documents about Soulstone Survivors
The Cycle of a Hit Genre
The lifecycle of a hit game genre follows a predictable four-phase pattern that dictates market opportunity for independent developers.
- Hit genres follow a predictable four-phase lifecycle: a proto-game launch, a genre-defining breakout hit, a 'second wave' of rapid-iteration variants by small teams, and a final 'Phase 4' consolidation where large studios dominate with high-polish, licensed, or premium-priced titles.
- The 'second wave' phase offers the highest opportunity for indie developers, as players remain highly curious and willing to switch between games, often pushing the original genre-defining hit below 25% market share.
- Market saturation occurs when a few dominant titles form an oligopoly; for example, by May 2025, three games (Vampire Survivors, Brotato, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor) controlled over 75% of the Vampire Survivor-like market.
How to Use the Prologue Trick to Potentially Earn Thousands of Wishlists
The prologue strategy functions as a marketing tactic designed to maximize visibility on the Steam platform by leveraging the algorithmic benefits afforded to new, popular releases.
- The 'Prologue' strategy involves releasing a free, standalone 30–45 minute slice of a game as a separate Steam product to capture additional visibility on the 'Popular Upcoming' and 'New and Trending' charts.
- Successful execution requires driving approximately 7,000 wishlists to the Prologue page to trigger Steam's algorithmic visibility, which can lead to hundreds of thousands of wishlists for the main game, as seen with Soulstone Survivors.
- Developers should prioritize a standard Steam demo first to participate in festivals and streamer outreach, reserving the Prologue as a secondary tactic only for games that have already demonstrated strong organic interest.
Are Vampire Survivor-Likes Dead?
The primary purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the market viability of "Action Roguelikes"—often referred to as "Vampire Survivor-likes"—to determine if the genre remains a profitable opportunity for independent developers.
- The 'Action Roguelike' genre remains viable for indie developers, as evidenced by sustained player engagement levels through late 2022 following a brief dip in September.
- Market saturation is not a primary concern; only 174 Action Roguelikes were released in 2022, compared to 740 puzzle platformers and 1,341 visual novels.
- Financial success is achievable even without being the top-performing title; for example, Nomad Survival grossed over $221,000 within its first six months.
Plus: Probing Dave the Diver's Sleeper Hit Origins
This analysis examines the performance of recent PC and console releases, focusing on the unexpected success of Dave the Diver and broader market trends across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
- Major publishers are successfully adopting indie aesthetics to drive engagement, exemplified by Nexon’s sub-brand Mintrocket achieving 4,000 concurrent users and over 2,300 overwhelmingly positive reviews for Dave the Diver.
- Football Manager 2023 demonstrated strong market demand by reaching 72,000 concurrent users on Steam during the early November 2022 period.
- Sonic Frontiers outperformed expectations in its first three days, recording 19,200 peak concurrent users on Steam and an estimated 120,000 owners across PlayStation and Xbox.