Count your own time as cost
Solo developers routinely set team cost to zero and call the project profitable. It isn't — it's a project that paid less than a job would have. Put a realistic monthly figure on your own time and the trade-off becomes visible while you can still act on it.
Scope is the biggest financial lever
The break-even number scales linearly with development months, so scope decisions dwarf pricing decisions.
- • Six extra months at $9k/month means selling thousands more copies just to stand still.
- • Ports add cost and store cuts before they add audience — sequence them after the first launch pays back.
- • Marketing spent before launch (wishlists) generally outperforms the same money spent after.
- • Higher prices raise net-per-unit but shrink the audience; test the trade in both directions here.
Plan for the discount curve
Most lifetime units for premium indie titles sell during sales events, not at full price. Setting average lifetime discount to zero produces a break-even number you will never hit — 20–40% is the realistic planning band.
Related guides
Long-form playbooks on the same topic, written by the RevenueLab editorial team.
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Read the guideFAQ
Should marketing be inside the break-even number?
Yes. It's real spend that the game has to recover, and excluding it makes launch decisions look cheaper than they are.
What net revenue should I assume per $20 sale?
After typical discounting, the store cut, and tax, many developers see roughly $8–$11 per nominal $20 sale. This calculator lets you set each deduction explicitly.
How do I estimate lifetime units?
Use your wishlist count and conversion assumptions — the Steam Wishlist Conversion Calculator produces the unit figure you can drop into the expected-units input here.
Do refunds change the break-even?
Yes, effectively raising it. If you want refunds included, reduce expected units by your refund rate before entering them.
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Written by Sam Doshi and the RevenueLab editorial team. We don't sell the data feeds this tool is built on.
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