The Urban Jungle simulator from developers in Yakutia was purchased 13,000 times in a week. The wishlist-to-sales conversion rate is about 11%
At the end of March, the indie studio Kylyk Games, consisting of three people, released their first game on Steam — Urban Jungle. The game's initial performance was discussed by the project's game designer, Kiunnei Vinokurova, on LinkedIn.
Urban Jungle
A few words about the game to start with. Urban Jungle is a cozy decorator simulator with puzzle elements in which players must arrange flowers and other indoor plants around a home. As a result of their efforts, an ordinary apartment gradually transforms into a "green oasis."
According to Vinokurova, Urban Jungle approached its release with 120,000 wishlists, but only a small fraction converted into sales. Urban Jungle sold 13,000 copies in its debut week.
The developer admitted that the sales both failed to meet and exceeded the expectations of Kylyk Games. On one hand, the studio hoped for greater success, considering how many people added Urban Jungle to their wishlist. On the other hand, at the beginning of its development, Urban Jungle was merely a pet project that was not even planned to be released, and at that time, Kylyk Games could only dream of such sales.
Vinokurova added that the number of wishlists for Urban Jungle grew slightly after its release. It now stands at 150,000. The game also managed to reach the top spot on the "Popular New Releases" chart on Steam at launch.
Currently, the median playtime for Urban Jungle is an hour. Overall, Steam users are happy with the game: they've written 209 reviews, 94% of which are positive.
"Overall, I believe we did an excellent job and did everything we could. The game is not a flop; on the contrary, it's a hit among hits. Look, they even uploaded us to a torrent, which I take as recognition. We're not upset; we even contacted them and created a 'support the developer' capsule to make it look nice," concluded Vinokurova.
Urban Jungle page on a torrent tracker