StarRupture is nearing $10M in early-access Steam revenues
Plus, we look at the hometown hero effect, where games from devs in smaller countries often attract a disproportionate share of local players. There's a lot of examples.
We’ve been focusing a lot on big-publisher AAA releases recently, so we thought we’d shine the spotlight on a cool title from a smaller team.
StarRupture is off to a great start on Steam
StarRupture, made by Warsaw-based team Creepy Jar, entered early access on Jan 6. It’s a first-person open-world survival game with solo and co-op play, and it’s already sold 700K+ copies on Steam.
StarRupture combines base-building – think Satisfactory, which 52% of StarRupture players previously played – with combat and exploration.
One unique feature is Cataclysms – massive, recurring environmental disasters (like solar flares or tectonic shifts) that can reshape the landscape. It works super well, adding a fresh spin on the survival genre.
StarRupture has already generated almost $10M on Steam, thanks to the community-first mindset of the team – as well as their impressive combined experience across the Polish games market.
Creepy Jar continues to see success from its community-driven culture
Creepy Jar, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is made up of Polish game dev legends, with credits on Dying Light, The Witcher 2, and Shadow Warrior.
The team has built up plenty of goodwill via survival title Green Hell, which has now passed 10M copies sold (87% via Steam).
Green Hell shifted another million units on Steam alone since the start of December, thanks to a huge discount to $2 to coincide with the early access launch of StarRupture:
By dramatically lowering the barrier to entry for their legacy title, Creepy Jar basically onboarded a million new potential fans into their ecosystem right as StarRupture hit early access. Fair play.
Anyway, Creepy Jar prides itself on its community-first philosophy, maintaining long-term success through a consistent stream of free content updates and a strong commitment to community feedback.
Around 33% of StarRupture players on Steam previously played Green Hell, so the studio clearly has many returning fans.
They’ve taken that same community-first energy into the early access launch of StarRupture. After taking a quick look at the official StarRupture Discord, it’s easy to see just how responsive and community-driven the team is. You love to see it.
The community showed up for the supporter pack
Plenty of publishers understand the potential of launch-day perks, but StarRupture shows just how willing players are to invest extra in a studio and community they love.
Our DLC estimates show that StarRupture’s Supporter Pack achieved a massive 55% attach rate to the base game shortly after its January 6 launch. The pack costs $4 and offers digital goodies like in-game items, the soundtrack, and a digital artbook.
As of Jan 21, Creepy Jar has sold almost 170K Supporter Packs alongside more than 700K copies of the base game, an attach rate of 24%.
This has resulted in $530K in extra revenue from relatively low-effort digital content. For smaller studios with strong community trust like Creepy Jar, such add-ons can be essential revenue drivers that a majority of early adopters are eager to purchase.
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Cultural proximity: Local gamers often show up to support devs in their country
There is a noticeable ‘’hometown hero’’ effect in the games industry. While the US, China, and Japan typically dominate global charts, studios based in smaller countries often attract a disproportionate share of local players.
We see this clearly with StarRupture, where Poland is the #4 market with 6% of the player base – a higher share than the country usually commands in global software sales, especially for smaller indies.
The hometown hero trend holds steady even for bigger games, including multi-year, massive franchises. The US and China often claim the top two spots due to sheer population size, but the developer’s home country frequently rounds out the top three:
Cyberpunk 2077: Poland remains its #3 market on Steam, years after launch, driven by loyalty to CD Projekt Red.
Assassin’s Creed: Despite being a global Ubisoft franchise, the series’ French roots help maintain France as its consistent #3 market – including for Shadows.
Stellar Blade: South Korea ranks #3 on PS5 (6% of players), showing a strong domestic push for Shift Up’s first major console title.
This phenomenon becomes even more pronounced when the game’s themes reflect its origin. Expedition 33, which is deeply rooted in French art and culture, sees France taking the #3 spot with 11% of the PS5 audience and 7% on Steam.
Likewise, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II sees Czechia as its #4 market (6% on PS5 and 4% on Steam). Players here are supporting a local developer, and they’re engaging with their own 15th-century Bohemian history.
There are a few reasons for this:
Local media and influencers: Local media often gives disproportionate coverage to homegrown studios, leading to higher awareness in the domestic market before the game even launches. Local streamers are also more likely to champion a game from their own country.
Localisation nuance: Even when a game is released globally, the original script or voice acting (like the French in Expedition 33 or Czech in KCD2) often contains cultural idioms and humour that resonate more with the local audience than a translation ever could.
Physical presence: Studios in smaller hubs often go to local gaming expos (like Poznań Game Arena in Poland) or host community meetups, building a physical grassroots connection that US-based giants rarely achieve in those territories.
The familiarity also helps. I remember booting up Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, and discovering that the lead character had a Welsh accent.
Then I learned the protagonist, Edward Kenway, was from SWANSEA (where I grew up). This absolutely blew my mind, and the experience still sticks with me.
Clearly, cultural authenticity can be a powerful tool to capture local markets for developers outside the major hubs.
Cool links and other stuff
We’re launching our client-only newsletter next week! We’ll be using data to dive deep into relevant gaming trends, with the first edition focusing on PvE. The public newsletter isn’t going anywhere, though.
It’s been another neat week for Alinea press, with Vice covering our ARC Raiders numbers and Polygon covering our Oblivion Remastered numbers.
We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Reach out here (or DM me here on Substack), and we’ll set you up.
The last word
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[Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]