Offering a game as a free download might seem risky, but tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik argues it can actually be a good business strategy, and data supports his claim.
To celebrate the reveal of Graveyard Keeper 2, the publisher, tinyBuild, offered the first game, released in 2018, as a free download on Steam for the weekend. It proved very popular with players!
On April 12th, the game reached a record high of 46,305 concurrent players. This is almost three times the number of players it had when it first launched in August 2018 (16,993). It’s now the 39th most popular game on Steam, surpassing games like Terraria, Cyberpunk 2077, and Path of Exile.
Why giving Graveyard Keeper away for free paid off
The increase in players directly led to more income. In a post on X, Nichiporchik explained that giving the game away for free has proven worthwhile, as they’ve already earned nearly $250,000 from sales of downloadable content (DLC) for the original game – and that’s just on Steam. They haven’t yet calculated the revenue from console versions, but the success is clear when you have a lot of additional content to sell.
Graveyard Keeper 2 is now among the 100 most wishlisted games on Steam. As of today, it has accumulated 450,000 wishlists since its announcement last Thursday.
— Alex Nichiporchik (@aNichiporchik) April 14, 2026
It’s important to remember that this strategy only worked because Graveyard Keeper has a lot of downloadable content. Players who got the original game for free had options to purchase, and many of them took advantage of that.
The second game in the series quickly gained popularity on Steam’s wishlist feature. During a recent free weekend, Graveyard Keeper 2 received 400,000 wishlists, and by April 14th, that number had grown to 450,000. This made it one of the most anticipated upcoming games on the platform, even shortly after it was revealed.
tinyBuild’s recent promotion shows developers a simple way to boost older games with downloadable content: offer a free weekend to bring players back, make some money from extra sales, and generate excitement for future updates.
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2026-04-15 22:48