What game is still in beta, has been the top-selling game on Steam for five days, and has between 50,000 and 90,000 players in-game at all times? Intergalactic sandbox Starbound, indie developer Chucklefish’s recent beta release.
Starbound ranked third in Steam’s concurrent players throughout the beta’s first 24 hours, but quickly took its place as the platform’s second most populated game within 36 hours. It has remained in second place, just below Dota 2, ever since.
To further drive home how successful Starbound has been thus far, consider this:
Over 100,000 people pre-ordered the game via the official site in the months before the beta went live. Since then, over 52,000 additional people have purchased from the Starbound website and it has remained the top-selling game on Steam since its release last Wednesday.
It’s safe to assume that hundreds of thousands of people have purchased Starbound since release, an impressive feat for any indie game. Chucklefish and their planet-hopping sandbox have an exciting few months ahead of them as the game slowly chugs its way through its first beta phase and continues to pick up steam among the gaming community.
