What is the average an indie game needs to sell to be profitable?

[Mr Puggsly]

Goodnightmoon said:

Mr Puggsly said:
I'm sure it varies greatly, but I imagine a lot of Wii U ports can be profitable with 1000 units sold.

Quite honestly though, many of those games on the eShop look like iOS and Android marketplace junk. Bigger budget indie games are generally skipping Wii U.

- Shovel Knight
- The binding of Isaac: Rebirth
- Shantae and the Pirate´s Curse
- Oddworld: New and Tasty
- Kerbal Space Program
- Runbow
- Affordable Space Adventures
- The Swapper
- Guacamelee
- Little Inferno
- Don´t Starve
- Yokay-laylee
- Mighty No.9
- Bloodstained
- Super Meat Boy 
- Year Walk
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Fast Racing Neo
etc etc

WiiU is actually having most of the most relevant indie games on the console market, even some of them are exclusives or were launched on WiiU first, and Fast Racing Neo is actually one of the most ambitious indie games I´ve seen.

Indie games that launch on Wii U were probably moneyhatted. Shovel Knight defniitely was.

Notable indie games are coming to Wii U, some thanks to Kickstarter. But we see significantly more coming to PS4 and X1. The OP points out many indie games are coming to Wii U, but many notable indie titles are skipping Wii U likely because digital sales are modest there.

Hence, the games coming to Wii U reduced their risks with Kickstarter or don't need to sell a significant number to break even.