A Deep Dive into Everspace's Steam Launch: Separating Fact from Fiction

Measuring success in the ever-changing landscape of game development can be a daunting task, but today, I'm excited to share a unique perspective on two data sets that reveal the evolution of Steam feature performance over time and the impact of wishlist value on Early Access versus 1.0 launches. Fresh from our studio's most successful launch to date, I'm eager to share insights and comparisons on our two similar and successful announce-to-launch campaigns for Rockfish Games' flagship titles, Everspace and Everspace 2. The space game genre has experienced a significant resurgence in recent years, with titles like Spacebourne 2, No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, Eve Online, Stellaris, the X series, Homeworld 3, Star Citizen, and the highly anticipated AAA space-RPG blockbuster Starfield. Our space combat series, Everspace, has played a vital role in this renaissance, and we believe our influence extends even further, given our team's background in developing space combat games like Galaxy on Fire 1 & 2. The success of our first Everspace, which became a Steam Early Access Platinum Graduate in 2017 and sold nearly three million units on PC and console, allowed us to build upon a much bigger and more appealing vision for the sequel. Our internal pitch for Everspace 2 was to create a game that combined the best elements of Freelancer, Diablo, and Descent. This unique blend of genres had huge potential, and we were determined to carve out our own niche within the space game genre. Although both titles had different starting conditions, we employed similar strategies, including demonstrating a compelling prototype, proving our case to the community through Kickstarter, and collaborating with our community during Early Access with several major content updates before reaching version 1.0. Throughout this process, we focused on running targeted, data-driven campaigns on social media and partnering with content creators who were genuinely interested in our game. Our strong Steam Greenlight campaign, with 95% positive votes, and a massive Kickstarter with nearly 11,000 backers, helped launch our first Everspace into Steam Early Access in September 2016 with solid momentum. We sold 19,000 copies during the launch week at a lead price of $29.99, with a 1-Day wishlist conversion rate of 10.7% and a 7-Day conversion rate of 15.1%, resulting in 18,000 notifications sent. Our debut title earned 93% positive reviews until technical issues with VR and HOTAS implementation, combined with high expectations from hardcore space sim fans, affected our ratings. The Steam store page traffic during the launch week was substantial, with 8.1 million impressions and a 9.84% CTR, leading to close to 800,000 store page visits. The store page sales conversion rate was 1.58%, and the first two-week-long Winter Sale shortly after launch saw 2 million impressions, a 28% CTR, and 561,000 store page visits, although the sales conversion rate was lower at 0.34%. The first Everspace generated $1.67 million in revenue on Steam from 65,000 copies sold during nine months of Early Access. As Everspace launched on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch, as well as on Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, it provided a solid foundation for our team to develop Everspace 2, a space-faring, looter-shooter action RPG. Fast forward to January 2021, and we launched Everspace 2 in Steam Early Access with more momentum and a changed platform landscape. Thanks to a longer pre-launch campaign and another successful Kickstarter, albeit with fewer backers, Everspace 2 launched with 226,000 wishlists, 16 times more than its predecessor. This success led to a global Steam store pop-up, notifications sent to all owners of the predecessor, and featuring on the store page carousel, resulting in over 66 million impressions and 92% positive reviews, making Everspace 2 the global #1 top seller on Steam that month. With more traffic, a lower CTR was expected, but 3.63% was still a respectable result, and we were pleased with the 61,000 copies sold at a $39.99 lead price during the launch week. This performance busted the myth that games in Early Access should be cheap, and we argue that devs should not underestimate the value of their game. Purchases and activations from wishlists were at 496%, and the 7-Day wishlist conversion was lower at 8.9%. The Steam store page conversion rate was 1.2%, and peak active players were at 384%. We saw $2.378 million in Steam revenue for the Early Access launch week, a huge relief after investing in a larger team. To predict the sustainability of the Early Access period, we looked at the 28-day baseline performance after the launch. Store page impressions were at 431%, and the CTR was lower at 3.39%. Sales were at 129%, and revenue was at 181% thanks to the higher price. However, our team was now twice as strong, and salaries had increased, so we relied on running sales during Early Access to maintain our momentum. The performance of the first seasonal sale of Everspace 2 during Early Access was surprising, with a whopping 30.4 million impressions on Steam's front page, but a lower CTR of 2.67%. Activations and purchases from wishlists were still at 283%, with a slightly lower 7-Day conversion rate, generating $507,000 in Steam revenue. The sales conversion rate improved from 0.34% to 5.13%, indicating that Steam users were 15 times more likely to buy Everspace 2 when coming from within the platform. Overall, Everspace 2 generated $7.59 million in Steam qualified revenue from 224,000 copies sold during 27 months of Early Access, a great success for our self-funded studio. The Game Pass deal did not negatively impact our performance on Steam, and we saw a slight increase in baseline sales after adding Everspace 2 to Game Pass. Over the course of Early Access, we lost 5% in positive reviews due to VR enthusiasts and hardcore space sim fans, but we maintained an 87% positive review score on Steam and an 83 aggregate score on Metacritic and Opencritic. For the v1.0 launch, Everspace 2 received a lot of Steam love, with 23.4 million impressions, a 246% increase over the predecessor's 1.0 release. Sales during the launch week were solid, with 42,059 copies sold, and the 7-Day wishlist conversion was identical at 2.0%. Thanks to the higher lead price, Steam revenue was $1,834,339, confirming that it is ok to ask for a higher price for a high-quality AA product. With this successful launch, we can continue to create exciting space action RPGs for PC and console, old-school style, without compromising on our vision or incorporating unnecessary monetization schemes. We're proud of what we've achieved and look forward to continuing to make games that our fans love.