Slime Rancher

No development budget has ever been disclosed, but the funding model is on the record: Nick Popovich self-funded the game from personal savings and Monomi Park has never taken publisher or VC money, keeping a 'war chest' of runway instead. The original was built largely by two people over eighteen months on strict eight-hour days — Popovich: 'The original Slime Rancher cheated. A very small group of people made it, and it looks like many more people than that made it' — with 20 people credited on the 1.0 release and a team of 12 by January 2019. Hard figures: list price $19.99, 155,991 Steam reviews at 96.7% positive, and an all-time Steam concurrent peak of 17,059 set in November 2024, seven years after launch. The official site now claims 'over 15 million fans worldwide' at franchise level, which should not be read as sales of this title alone. Estimated gross at list price would be about $100M for the 5 million confirmed copies — but the game has been heavily discounted throughout its life and was given away free on the Epic Games Store in March 2021, so the real figure is materially lower. Third-party owner estimates for Steam alone range from 4.5 million to 7 million.