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Dead Cells has sold 730k copies since its Early Access launch

Dead Cells has sold 730k copies since its Early Access launch

Roguelike Metroidvania title Dead Cells has sold more than 730,000 copies since it rolled into Early Access in May 2017.

That's according to developer Motion Twin's communications and marketing man Steve Filby, who told PCGamesInsider.biz that the game has surpassed his expectations.

Filby expected the studio to break even on the title - selling between 20,000 and 30,000 copies - within the project's first month in the wild. In fact, Dead Cells hit that milestone in its first week, with the marketing man crediting the streaming community with assisting the Early Access title's growth since then.

"We've sold 730,000 copies so far," Filby said.

"When we released, I was pretty confident we'd be able to break even and sell about 20,000 or 30,000 units in the first month. I knew that if we got to that point and that we had positive reviews, we'd sell quite well in the long run. I didn't expect us to break even in the first week and I didn't expect there to be such excitement for it from the streaming community. It's been insane to see how much they have gotten behind it and how really into it they get.

"Dead Cells takes anywhere between 25 to 40 hours but some people can finish it in ten now. Streamers can keep playing and keep coming back to it. The community really enjoys that and you see them chiming in about what weapons the streamer should be using and so on.

"We're working with Twitch on integrations that we can do to make it more watchable. Early Access as a whole has been amazing. We've managed to keep the buzz up, keep the community interested."

You can read more about Dead Cells in our upcoming interview with Filby. 

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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.