Dwarf Fortress sold close to 500,000 copies in December

Dwarf Fortress sold almost 500,000 copies on Steam in December 2022, according to developer Bay 12 Games.

The 1.0 version of the long-gestating dwarven colony simulator launched on December 6, 2022, and amassed around 160,000 sales within 24 hours. Publisher Kitfox Games said that milestone was actually its two months sales estimate for Dwarf Fortress, indicating the title had been quick off the blocks.

Now, in a post on the Bay 12 developer forum, Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams offered an update on the title's performance and said the game managed to shift "almost half a million copies in December, which is awesome."

Adams said Bay 12 won't have "all the specific numbers" until mid-February when everything has been processed by Steam owner Valve and Kitfox, but reiterated "the launch went great."

Looking ahead, Adams explained there'll soon be more than one programmer working on the project, which should help with bug fixes, ports, and more.

"In January we're going to begin the exciting new era of having more than one programmer on the project! I don't have any idea how long it will take to ramp things up etc., but this should eventually help with bug fixes, ports, and more. This at least frees up more of my time for features, and maybe we'll also figure out how to involve multiple people with those as well," continued Adams.

"More bug fixes and quality of life stuff are coming, and arena is coming. Then I'll probably be working on adventure mode while more patches come in, but I don't expect to be able to start on adventure mode this month while we're figuring all of this out and arena mode is still to come."