Indie game Backpack Battles hits 100k copies sold, also peaking at over 32k concurrent players
It’s always great to see indie games succeed in the market. Backpack Battles, an auto-battling RPG with an interesting hook, is doing really well on Steam right now, exceeding the expectations of its creators.
What is Backpack Battles?
Launched in Early Access on March 8, Backpack Battles is a “PvP inventory management auto battler.” The gameplay is 100% as described: you fight enemies with items in your backpack, finding powerful synergies by combining various food, weapons, potions, and other stuff you tend to see in RPG inventories. Asynchronous multiplayer also allows you to compete with builds of real players in Ranked mode.
The game was developed by PlayWithFurcifer, an “indie gamedev couple” based in Germany. They started making Backpack Battles as their side project while working on their Vampire Survivors-like roguelite Furcifer’s Fungeon. However, it turned out to be a massive success the devs initially didn’t expect.
Road to success and nearly 500k wishlists
- As PlayWithFurcifer detailed in a recent YouTube video, Backpack Battles was made with their favorite engine, Godot. At the end of May 2023, they released a demo, which reached over 100 concurrent players.
- In June 2023, some popular Chinese influencers started streaming the game, attracting many new users. With the help of publisher IndieArk, PlayWithFurcifer quickly localized the demo into Chinese, which was a very smart move that had a positive impact on player count.
- Backpack Battles eventually became the team’s main project. Shortly after the 0.5 update, the demo grabbed the attention of popular streamers globally and reached nearly 19k concurrent players in November 2023.
- As of February 7, Backpack Battles has reached over 471k wishlists, indicating that the game has every chance to become a real hit.
Impressive launch
Over the weekend, PlayWithFurcifer announced that Backpack Battles has reached 100k copies sold in less than two days after its EA launch.
“As game developers, all we want is for people to enjoy our game,” the devs said. “Having the game resonate with so many of you is a dream come true. We will continue to give our best and make Backpack Battles the best game we can.”
Awesome news! Backpack Battles has reached the 100,000 units milestone in less than two days! 🥳
We are super excited about this, thank you so much! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wutl5UTQzl
— Furcifer making Backpack Battles (@TweetFurcifer) March 9, 2024
Backpack Battles currently has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam, with 96% of the 1,821 reviews being positive.
According to SteamDB, it peaked at over 19k concurrent players shortly after its launch. Player count is constantly growing, reaching 32,635 CCU less than 30 minutes ago. So the number is likely to increase in the coming days.
At the time of writing, Backpack Battles ranks as the 14th biggest Steam launch of 2024 in terms of peak CCU. But it has a chance to climb several positions in the future:
- Palworld — 2.1 million CCU;
- Helldivers 2 — 458.7k CCU;
- Last Epoch — 264.7k CCU;
- Enshrouded — 160.4k CCU;
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink — 114k CCU;
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor — 56.9k CCU;
- Tekken 8 — 49.9k CCU;
- Nightingale — 47.5k CCU;
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth — 46.1k CCU.
- Persona 3 Reload — 45k CCU;
- Supermarket Simulator — 41k CCU;
- Balatro — 37.9k CCU;
- Astral Party — 34.3k CCU;
- Backpack Battles — 32.6k CCU.
