Itch.io sales reality check (and why it doesn’t mean your game is bad)

Quick transparency post, because I think this can help new devs.

Our first indie game later sold about 113,000 copies on Steam, so we know the game can do well.

But on itch.io, the same game ended up at:

• 17,000 page views
• 414 sales
• $706.73 total revenue

Takeaway: itch.io can be a bit misleading as a “is my game good?” test. If your game sells poorly here, it often just means not enough people saw it. Discovery is smaller, and most sales come from external traffic you bring yourself (YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, mailing list, etc.).

For us, itch.io is still valuable as a place for demos, updates, and community, but Steam is where sales can scale.

Curious to hear your experience: do you use itch mainly for demos, paid releases, or both?