One of the biggest indie titles of 2023 has just reached a major milestone. In an interview with Game Developer in PAX Australia, Black Salt Games revealed that their epic fishing simulator Dredge has now sold more than one million units worldwide since launching this past March. To put this statistic in perspective, the studio also mentioned that they were hoping to sell roughly 100,000 units before the end of the year. However, with this new sales number, they have essentially shattered that expectation and then some.
Dredge’s producer, Nadia Thorne, stated that they were as shocked as anyone when they saw the most recent sales numbers. “We hoped to maybe sell 100,000 copies in our first year,” Thorne said. “That would have been amazing. That was a top estimate when we were setting our expectations. We smashed through those targets.” Thorn added that getting to that one million goal was “crazy” and not initially within the realm of possibility. However, they managed to break the 100,000 goal within 24 hours of the game being available. 3D Artist Mikey Bastiaens said that when they saw those first sales numbers during the launch they were “just refreshing the sales page and going ‘oh my god, oh my god.'”
As we mentioned already, Dredge is an indie title developed by Black Salt Games and published by Team17. The game has you playing as a fisherman, who goes out to catch some fish, while also encountering horrifying monsters the more you venture out into the sea. It’s an incredible combination of slice of life simulation meets HP Lovecraft monsters. The game was well received, and is considered one of the best indie titles of 2023 thus far.
The studio also announced the title’s first DLC, dubbed The Pale Reach, and is slated to launch next month on November 16. This new piece of content has the fisherman exploring a frozen expanse, and will add “1-3 hours of content.” It is also accessible at any point in the main game, meaning there are no prerequisites to gain access. It will feature new monsters to keep you up at night, as well as a ton of new fish and crabs to catch.