There is no defensible, fully audited top ten of the best-selling indie games: “indie” has no universal boundary, and public sales figures come from different dates and sources. The games below are major reported successes, not a precise ranking. Each figure is dated and attributed, and Minecraft is included only for its historical sales milestone before Microsoft acquired Mojang.
How to read this list
Here, “indie” means a game developed independently at release or during the sales milestone being discussed. That definition allows a historical milestone to be relevant even if the developer or game’s ownership later changed. It does not settle every edge case: Palworld’s reported sales are included as a notable success, but its indie classification remains open to interpretation.
The entries are not ordered as a verified ranking. The available public reports do not provide a complete, consistently defined set of comparable totals for ten games. Sales figures below are snapshots rather than necessarily current lifetime totals. They refer to copies sold, not revenue, downloads, active players, or access through subscription services.
Major reported indie-game sales milestones
| Game | Reported copies sold | Date and source | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|---|
Minecraft |
60 million | Guinness World Records, 2014 | Guinness recorded this total by the time Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014. It is a historical indie-era milestone, not Minecraft’s current lifetime total. Guinness World Records |
Terraria |
About 70 million | May 2026; Re-Logic milestone reported by GamesRadar | The reported cross-platform breakdown is 39.6 million PC, 10.7 million console, and 19.7 million mobile copies. This is a developer milestone relayed by a secondary outlet. GamesRadar |
Stardew Valley |
More than 41 million | As of December 2024; Statista | Statista’s snapshot also reports 26 million PC copies. An earlier 2024 announcement said the game had passed 30 million; that older milestone is superseded by the later snapshot. Statista; Steam community announcement |
Palworld |
More than 40 million | 2026 report relaying a Pocketpair milestone | The figure appeared in secondary reporting via a Steam news-feed result. The milestone does not by itself establish whether Palworld fits a particular reader’s definition of indie. Steam news feed |
Hollow Knight |
More than 15 million | As of August 2025; Team Cherry milestone reported by GamesRadar | This is a secondary report of the developer’s milestone, not a separately audited current total. GamesRadar |
Why an exact top ten is difficult to establish
“Indie” changes at the edges
Independence can describe how a game was developed and released, but ownership can change later. Minecraft illustrates why the date matters: its 60-million Guinness record belongs to the period before Microsoft acquired Mojang, and should not be presented as a current indie-game total.
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Sales reports are snapshots, not a shared leaderboard
The figures above were announced or reported in different years and through different channels. Some are developer milestones relayed by news outlets; others are a record entry or a statistical snapshot. Without same-date, same-scope reporting for every candidate, sorting the numbers into a definitive all-time ranking would overstate what the evidence shows.
Copies sold are not interchangeable with other measures
A paid copy count cannot be directly compared with revenue, downloads, player counts, or the number of people who can play through a subscription service. Platform coverage also matters: Terraria’s reported figure, for example, spans PC, console, and mobile.
Does Minecraft count as an indie game?
It can be included when the question is about games that achieved major sales while their developers were independent. Guinness’s 60-million figure is specifically a 2014 historical milestone from before Microsoft acquired Mojang. If “indie” means a game that remains independently owned today, Minecraft does not fit that narrower definition. The answer depends on whether the label describes the game’s development and milestone period or its present ownership.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the milestones show
Terraria’s reported May 2026 total is the largest recent figure in this selection, while Stardew Valley’s later available snapshot is more than 41 million as of December 2024. Minecraft’s 60 million is significant in historical context but is not a current total. Palworld’s reported milestone is substantial, though its placement in an indie list depends on the classification being used. These distinctions make dated, attributed milestones more useful than an unsupported “number one” claim.
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