Playable Thing For A Popular Thing
Simon Carless on how Small Spaces sold ~15x its Week 1 sales after a year:
Our last analysis on ‘long tail’ in 2025 says Steam games with >1,000 Week 1 unit sales have a 2.7x ‘Week 1 to Year 1’ median revenue multiplier. So when the dev (Niklas Tomkowitz) and publisher (Pretty Soon) of apartment decorating game Small Spaces (\$13) told us they had a 14.3x W1→Y1 revenue multiplier (& 14.1x units!) we went 👀.Specifically, Small Spaces - which launched into Early Access in late May 2025 - did 9,980 units and $97k gross in Week 1, and 18k units and $180k in Month 1, but stretched all the way to 141k units and $1.4m gross in Year 1, an amazing result for a tiny title. We talked to its creators, and here’s why the game just ‘works’:
[...]
Less explicit objectives, more abstract creativity: Niklas notes he comes from a design background, was inspired by games like Townscaper and Tiny Glade, and “wanted to make a game that gets players in a creative flow effortlessly.” An inspo was YouTube channel Never Too Small*, showcasing small room interior design.
[...]
(*We wonder why more devs don’t look at what is popular on the rest of the Internet, and make construction games around them. For example, I’m enchanted by the micro-aquarium making YouTube channel Tanks For Nothin. So why not make a cozy aquarium builder?)
Never Too Small already tested the world. Millions of people, already watching, already enchanted. The audience is evidence.
Playable thing for a popular thing.
Such an underused, underappreciated cheat code.