4 Million Copies of Beloved Adventure Game Machinarium Have Been Sold

When Machinarium was originally released on PC in 2009, it was acclaimed for its engaging puzzles and beautiful artwork. So often, though, small indie games like it come out to critical success but fail to sell well. As a result, it's encouraging to hear that Machinarium has sold very well since it launched. Developer Amanita Design recently announced that over 4 million copies of the game have been sold across PC, PS3, Vita, and mobile devices.

In an infographic published by Amanita on its Facebook page (you can see it at the bottom of this story), the developer shares some interesting statistics about how the game has sold over its lifespan. For example, it sold best on PC, which was its original platform of release. 49 percent of its total revenue came from PC, Mac, or Linux users, with PS3 and Vita only accounting for 7 percent. The remaining 44 percent came from mobile users.

The distribution of purchases on mobile is notable, as well, with iOS devices pulling in the lion's share of revenue for Amanita. Even though 80 percent of the mobile market is Android, 72 percent of Machinarium's revenue came from iOS.

As pointed out by Rock Paper Shotgun, the PC statistics also reveal that Amanita made a disproportionate amount of money from direct sales through its website. Even though only 8 percent of copies were sold through its site, those sales accounted for 27 percent of PC revenue because all of the money goes directly to the studio. As a result, it seems like a pretty good idea for indie developers to also sell their games through their own websites, rather than relying exclusively on distribution platforms like Steam.

Amanita has made a couple other well-received games since Machinarium, Botanicula and Samorost 3. The studio is also working on its next game, called Chuchel, which is being designed by the creator of Botanicula. In addition, Machinarium is coming to PS4.

You can check out our original review of Machinarium here.