In a new blog post breaking down sales for several of its games, Yacht Club Games confirmed that Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is nearing three million units sold. What’s interesting to note is the budget for each title – the initial Shovel of Hope campaign cost $1.4 million to develop over 18 months with six team members. Plague of Shadows required $1 million and 12 months time with nine development team members.
Specter of Torment required 15 months, 16 team members and a $1.5 million budget. As for the most recent additions, King of Cards cost $2.5 million (with Kickstarter accounting for $25K) and required 18 months of time with 16 team members. Shovel Knight Showdown required $1.5 million ($50K from Kickstarter), 12 months development time and 16 team members.
Overall, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove has had a development period of 110 months and a budget of $9 million. Other interesting figures include Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon selling 35,000 units and Cyber Shadow selling 85,000 units with more than 300,000 downloads on Xbox Game Pass. For the latter, the combined budget with developer Aarne “MekaSkull” Hunziker was $600,000 though this doesn’t account for the amount spent out of his own pocket.
Overall, Yacht Club Games has generated over $40 million in revenue across all of its games. It’s currently working on Mina the Hollower and Shovel Knight Dig, the latter releasing this year. Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon also has some post-launch DLC coming up so stay tuned.
