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Indies and original IP blew up in 2026

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Indies and original IP blew up in 2026

More than half of the games that sold more than 500,000 units in their first month were the start of a new series, and 43% were indies

Research by Sensor Tower – done at the request of GamesIndustry.biz – shows that indies and original IP made up a much higher proportion of the biggest PC and console games of 2026 when compared with 2025.

The analytics firm picked out the games that had sold more than 500,000 units in their first month on sale in two 12-month date ranges: September 2024 to August 2025 (the 2025 cohort), and September 2025 to August 2026 (the 2026 cohort). In the 2025 cohort, a total of 55 games sold more than 500,000 units in their first month, while 76 games met the threshold in the 2026 cohort, and the number of units sold increased by 51% year on year, from 120.5 million to 182.4 million.

In the 2025 cohort, just 13 titles (24%) were indies, compared with 33 in the 2026 cohort (43%).

New series also broke through. Forty titles (53%) in 2026 were the first game in a new series, up from 21 titles (38%) in 2025. However, it's notable that sequels still tend to sell more per game – sequels accounted for 55% of month-one paid units in 2026.

In addition, the number of games based on original IP (IP owned by the developer or publisher as opposed to IP licensed from sports leagues, film, TV, comics, or toys) leapt up from 44 titles in 2025 to 61 in 2026.


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