Construction game colossus Dwarf Fortress is making a killing on Steam

By
Michael
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All the numbers are pointing straight up as players dig deep into the earth. The Steam success of Dwarf Fortress is obvious.

Rock and … no, wait, wrong game. Strike the earth! Better. The Steam version of Dwarf Fortress has been sending players deep into the mountains of randomly created, maddeningly complex calculated lands since 6 December and is already unearthing all that can be gained.

All metrics speak volumes for the game that inspired RimWorld, Prison Architect, Terraria and countless other building games. The graphics-heavy version of Dwarf Fortress is well received, sells well and is well played. Good thing for the developers at Bay 12 Games, who after all have been working on the original for over 20 years.

Until now, Dwarf Fortress was only available for free, but now it has a 29-euro price tag attached to it, in addition to the free version that is still available. Anyway, many fans seemed to be eagerly waiting to finally be allowed to pay something for it, as evidenced by the thousands of Steam reviews after a very short time.

This curious circumstance is summarised by a Reddit post:

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Everything lights green

The story is not entirely unexpected, as Dwarf Fortress is one of the most influential construction games ever. A version that finally adds nice pixel graphics instead of ASCII characters might have been eagerly awaited by many gamers.

Nevertheless, the success is considerable:

  • Steam top seller: As of release day, Dwarf Fortress was in first place on Steam top sellers, which is absolutely no easy task in the competitive run-up to Christmas, with blockbuster releases like Need for Speed, Call of Duty and AC Valhalla.
  • Extremely high approval: Fans are buying and rating positively in droves, with the counter currently at 97 per cent from around 5,000 reviewers.
  • Active players: The highest number of simultaneously active hobby dwarves on Steam so far is over 22,000. Also a strong number for a niche product with hardcore aspirations.

In the trailer you can take a look at the newly developed Dwarf Fortress:

Congratulations from the industry

Many studios and individuals whose products they say were influenced by Dwarf Fortress also shared their congratulations publicly. For example, the developers of Terraria:

Now it will be exciting to observe whether the zenith has already been reached with the release or whether Dwarf Fortress can even go one better. In addition to Steam, the new version of the hardcore construction game also appeared on Itch.io.

Are you one of the hardcore fans of the title? Did you get into the genre via RimWorld and the like, and if so, do you plan to play Dwarf Fortress? Feel free to write it in the comments!