Top 10 Indie Games That Became Mainstream Hits

Toby Fox made Undertale largely alone using GameMaker Studio, funded by a $51,000 Kickstarter. The game lets you complete every encounter without killing anyone — a radical concept in 2015 RPGs. The genocide route, where you kill everything, punishes you for it permanently by altering future playthroughs even after deletion. This meta-awareness, combined with Fox's brilliant writing and a soundtrack that spawned "Megalovania" (2.6 billion Spotify streams), made Undertale a cultural phenomenon. Over 10 million copies sold. Fox then made Deltarune. He's still largely working alone.

Three people at Team Cherry in Adelaide, Australia made a hand-drawn Metroidvania with 50+ hours of content and sold it for $15. The game has over 3 million copies sold, a 90+ Metacritic score, and is widely considered one of the greatest platformers ever made. The art style, boss design, and Christoper Larkin's orchestral soundtrack rival anything from studios 100 times their size. The sequel Silksong has been in development since 2019, generating a level of anticipation that has literally spawned its own meme culture around the wait.

Supergiant Games spent two years in early access refining Hades based on player feedback, and the result is the tightest action roguelike ever made. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, trying to escape the Underworld — dying sends you back to the start, but every death advances the story and your relationships. The narrative integration with roguelike mechanics was revolutionary: failure IS the story. It won the Hugo Award for Best Video Game (the first ever) and BAFTA for Best Game. Over 6 million copies sold. Greg Kasavin's writing is novelistic in quality.

Innersloth released Among Us in 2018. Nobody played it. Two years later, Twitch streamers discovered it during lockdown and it hit 500 million monthly active users — the most viral game in history. Three developers built it; at peak, it was generating $86 million per month on mobile alone. The social deduction gameplay ("who's the impostor?") entered everyday language: "sus" became a generational slang term. AOC played it on Twitch to drive voter registration and hit 435,000 concurrent viewers. From dead-on-arrival to cultural phenomenon in 24 months.

Brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer mortgaged their houses to fund a game that looks like a 1930s Fleischer cartoon. Every frame of Cuphead is hand-drawn on paper, inked, and watercolored — the same process used for actual 1930s animation. The result is visually unlike anything in gaming history. It's also brutally difficult, which somehow made it more popular. Over 12 million copies sold, a Netflix animated series, and a DLC (The Delicious Last Course) that took 5 years to make and was worth every second of the wait.

Matt Thorson and Noel Berry turned a game jam prototype into one of the most acclaimed platformers of all time. Celeste is 700+ screens of precision platforming wrapped around a story about climbing a mountain while battling anxiety and depression. The Assist Mode lets players of any skill level experience the full narrative — a design philosophy that influenced the entire industry's accessibility conversation. Lena Raine's soundtrack charted on Billboard. Over 1.5 million copies, a 94 Metacritic, and multiple Game of the Year awards.

Andrew "Redigit" Spinks and a small team released Terraria in 2011 as what looked like "2D Minecraft." It isn't. Terraria is a 2D sandbox action-adventure with 5,000+ items, 400+ enemies, 30+ bosses, and a progression system that goes from wooden swords to endgame cosmic gear. The game has been updated continuously for 13 years — for free. Over 58 million copies sold across all platforms, making it one of the best-selling games ever. Re-Logic has maintained it with a dedication that puts most AAA live-service games to shame.

Zeekerss, a single developer, released Lethal Company in early access in October 2023 and it sold 10 million copies in two months — becoming the most-played game on Steam by December. Four players explore abandoned moons to collect scrap for a sinister corporation while avoiding monsters that range from terrifying to absurd. The lo-fi horror aesthetic, proximity voice chat (your friends can hear you scream), and emergent chaos made it the most-streamed game of Q4 2023. One person made this. In Unity. While still in college.

LocalThunk, a solo developer, combined poker with roguelike deck-building and created the most addictive game of 2024. Balatro sold 1 million copies in its first month, won multiple Game of the Year awards, and was nominated for GOTY at The Game Awards alongside AAA titles with 500x its budget. The core loop — play poker hands, modify your deck with Joker cards that create absurd multiplier chains — is so compelling that players report losing entire weekends to "just one more run." It costs $15 and runs on a phone. The developer remained anonymous for months after launch.

Toby Fox made Undertale largely alone using GameMaker Studio, funded by a $51,000 Kickstarter. The game lets you complete every encounter without killing anyone — a radical concept in 2015 RPGs. The genocide route, where you kill everything, punishes you for it permanently by altering future playthroughs even after deletion. This meta-awareness, combined with Fox's brilliant writing and a soundtrack that spawned "Megalovania" (2.6 billion Spotify streams), made Undertale a cultural phenomenon. Over 10 million copies sold. Fox then made Deltarune. He's still largely working alone.

Three people at Team Cherry in Adelaide, Australia made a hand-drawn Metroidvania with 50+ hours of content and sold it for $15. The game has over 3 million copies sold, a 90+ Metacritic score, and is widely considered one of the greatest platformers ever made. The art style, boss design, and Christoper Larkin's orchestral soundtrack rival anything from studios 100 times their size. The sequel Silksong has been in development since 2019, generating a level of anticipation that has literally spawned its own meme culture around the wait.

Supergiant Games spent two years in early access refining Hades based on player feedback, and the result is the tightest action roguelike ever made. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, trying to escape the Underworld — dying sends you back to the start, but every death advances the story and your relationships. The narrative integration with roguelike mechanics was revolutionary: failure IS the story. It won the Hugo Award for Best Video Game (the first ever) and BAFTA for Best Game. Over 6 million copies sold. Greg Kasavin's writing is novelistic in quality.

Innersloth released Among Us in 2018. Nobody played it. Two years later, Twitch streamers discovered it during lockdown and it hit 500 million monthly active users — the most viral game in history. Three developers built it; at peak, it was generating $86 million per month on mobile alone. The social deduction gameplay ("who's the impostor?") entered everyday language: "sus" became a generational slang term. AOC played it on Twitch to drive voter registration and hit 435,000 concurrent viewers. From dead-on-arrival to cultural phenomenon in 24 months.

Brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer mortgaged their houses to fund a game that looks like a 1930s Fleischer cartoon. Every frame of Cuphead is hand-drawn on paper, inked, and watercolored — the same process used for actual 1930s animation. The result is visually unlike anything in gaming history. It's also brutally difficult, which somehow made it more popular. Over 12 million copies sold, a Netflix animated series, and a DLC (The Delicious Last Course) that took 5 years to make and was worth every second of the wait.

Matt Thorson and Noel Berry turned a game jam prototype into one of the most acclaimed platformers of all time. Celeste is 700+ screens of precision platforming wrapped around a story about climbing a mountain while battling anxiety and depression. The Assist Mode lets players of any skill level experience the full narrative — a design philosophy that influenced the entire industry's accessibility conversation. Lena Raine's soundtrack charted on Billboard. Over 1.5 million copies, a 94 Metacritic, and multiple Game of the Year awards.

Andrew "Redigit" Spinks and a small team released Terraria in 2011 as what looked like "2D Minecraft." It isn't. Terraria is a 2D sandbox action-adventure with 5,000+ items, 400+ enemies, 30+ bosses, and a progression system that goes from wooden swords to endgame cosmic gear. The game has been updated continuously for 13 years — for free. Over 58 million copies sold across all platforms, making it one of the best-selling games ever. Re-Logic has maintained it with a dedication that puts most AAA live-service games to shame.

Zeekerss, a single developer, released Lethal Company in early access in October 2023 and it sold 10 million copies in two months — becoming the most-played game on Steam by December. Four players explore abandoned moons to collect scrap for a sinister corporation while avoiding monsters that range from terrifying to absurd. The lo-fi horror aesthetic, proximity voice chat (your friends can hear you scream), and emergent chaos made it the most-streamed game of Q4 2023. One person made this. In Unity. While still in college.

LocalThunk, a solo developer, combined poker with roguelike deck-building and created the most addictive game of 2024. Balatro sold 1 million copies in its first month, won multiple Game of the Year awards, and was nominated for GOTY at The Game Awards alongside AAA titles with 500x its budget. The core loop — play poker hands, modify your deck with Joker cards that create absurd multiplier chains — is so compelling that players report losing entire weekends to "just one more run." It costs $15 and runs on a phone. The developer remained anonymous for months after launch.