shapez 2 is one of the best-selling new releases in August on Steam. The game's sales exceeded 260,000 copies
On August 15, the factory simulator shapez 2 was released in early access on Steam. Tobias Springer, the founder of the indie studio tobspr Games that developed the game, shared the project's initial results with the analytics service GameDiscoverCo.
shapez 2
- In its debut week alone, shapez 2 sold 70,500 copies. Currently, game sales amount to 261,770 copies with a refund rate of 7.7%.
- According to GameDiscoverCo estimates, this was enough to place shapez 2 in the top 5 best new releases in August on Steam by number of copies sold.
- The primary markets for shapez 2 were the USA (27%), China (15%), Germany (10%), the United Kingdom (6%), and Japan (5%). Russia accounted for 2% of the game sales.
- Prior to the release, shapez 2 had 330,000 wishlists.
- Springer admitted that the good sales numbers of shapez 2 are partly due to it being a sequel. Additionally, its success was significantly bolstered by participating in the Steam Puzzle Festival and the Next Fest demo festival.
- tobspr Games actively engaged with the audience throughout the development of shapez 2. "We spent a lot of time testing and communicating with the community to ensure they liked the game. We started involving users in Discord from day one, conducted over a hundred polls on practically every issue. We even let them choose the art style," said Springer. He added that at one point, the studio created an account on Patreon, where they shared game builds with interested users.
- Despite this, the developers invested little in paid marketing and didn't work with traditional media. They preferred to collaborate with bloggers and streamers.
