The Best Indie Games Made with Unity in 2025

In September 2023, Unity announced the Runtime Fee and nearly destroyed its relationship with indie developers. Studios threatened to leave. Thousands signed open letters. The CEO resigned.

Two years later, Unity powered three indie games that each sold over 7 million copies. A seven person team made a game jam project that moved 11 million units. A solo developer built a drug dealing simulator that earned $125 million. And the most anticipated indie sequel of the decade finally shipped on Unity and won Steam Game of the Year.

Whatever you think of Unity the company, the engine had its strongest indie year ever in 2025. Here are the games that proved it.

The Numbers

Before the individual entries, here is the headline data. The top five Unity indie games of 2025 combined for over 30 million copies sold on Steam alone:

• PEAK: 11 million+ copies
• Schedule I: 8 million+ copies
• Hollow Knight: Silksong: 7 million+ copies
• Escape from Duckov: 3 million+ copies
• R.E.P.O.: 3 million+ copies in three weeks (estimated $113 million+ in total revenue)

Every one of these was made by a team of 10 people or fewer. Most were made by teams of 7 or fewer. This is what Unity’s indie ecosystem actually looks like in practice.

1. PEAK

Developer: Aggro Crab and Landfall | Released: June 16, 2025 | Steam: 95% Positive (117,000+ reviews)

Three developers from Aggro Crab flew to Seoul, South Korea to meet four developers from Landfall for a month long game jam in February 2025. Seven people. One Airbnb. The budget for the entire project, including flights, rent, food, and salaries, was under $200,000.

Four months later, PEAK launched on Steam and sold 100,000 copies in 24 hours. One million in six days. Two million in nine days. By August 2025, the co-op climbing game had crossed 11 million copies sold. That is a return on investment that defies comprehension.

PEAK won Best Multiplayer and Streamers’ Choice at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, and was nominated for Best Multiplayer at The Game Awards. We covered the 10 million milestone when it happened. It still feels unreal.

2. Schedule I

Developer: TVGS (Tyler) | Released: March 24, 2025 (Early Access) | Steam: 98% Positive (279,000+ reviews)

Tyler Hankinson was 22 years old when he released Schedule I into Early Access. He built the entire game solo using Unity and Blender from his home in Sydney, Australia. The open world drug dealing simulator hit the top of Steam’s sales charts within a week.

By May 2025, Schedule I had sold 8.2 million copies and generated approximately $125 million in revenue. Its peak concurrent player count reached over 450,000, putting it ahead of most AAA multiplayer launches. It holds a 98% positive rating from nearly 280,000 reviews, making it one of the highest rated games on Steam regardless of genre.

Schedule I won the Breakthrough Award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025. It remains in Early Access with a full release estimated around 2027. Tyler has since expanded the team from one to two people.

3. Hollow Knight: Silksong

Developer: Team Cherry | Released: September 4, 2025 | Steam: 93% Positive (135,000+ reviews)

Seven years of waiting. Three full time developers. Hollow Knight: Silksong finally launched in September 2025 and the internet collectively lost its mind.

Team Cherry is Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine, supported by composer Christopher Larkin and a handful of contractors. That core team of three built the most anticipated indie sequel of the decade, and it delivered. Silksong sold 3.2 million copies on Steam in two weeks, with 5 million total players in three days (including Xbox Game Pass). By December 2025, the total had crossed 7 million copies.

The awards followed. Steam Game of the Year 2025. Golden Joystick PC Game of the Year and Best Indie Game. Best Action/Adventure at The Game Awards. Silksong is the rare game that lived up to years of impossible hype. Read our full review.

4. R.E.P.O.

Developer: Semiwork | Released: February 26, 2025 (Early Access) | Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

R.E.P.O. came out of nowhere. Semiwork, a small studio of roughly six to ten developers based in Uppsala, Sweden, launched their cooperative survival horror game into Early Access in late February 2025. Within three weeks, it had sold over 3 million copies.

The game’s peak concurrent player count hit 230,000 during its first weekend, numbers that most funded studios never reach. By May 2025, R.E.P.O. had generated an estimated $113 million in revenue, making it the second highest grossing indie game on Steam for 2025.

R.E.P.O. won Best Early Access Game at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025. The co-op horror genre continues to thrive on Steam, and this was its biggest breakout hit of the year.

5. Escape from Duckov

Developer: Team Soda (Bilibili) | Released: October 16, 2025 | Steam: Positive

Take Escape from Tarkov. Replace every human with a duck. That is Escape from Duckov, and it sold 3 million copies in three weeks.

Team Soda started with three developers inside Bilibili (the Chinese streaming platform) and expanded to five. The duck themed tactical shooter parody went viral immediately after launch, hitting 300,000+ peak concurrent players on Steam. It sold 500,000 copies in its first three days.

The game proves that a tight concept and strong comedic identity can carry a small team to enormous commercial success. Five people. Three million copies. Quack.

6. Blue Prince

Developer: Dogubomb / Raw Fury | Released: April 10, 2025 | Steam: 86% Positive (12,400+ reviews)

Tonda Ros worked 80 hours a week for eight years to finish Blue Prince. He watched over 2,000 hours of player footage to perfect the game’s design. The result is a roguelike puzzle adventure that critics called the most original game of 2025.

Blue Prince has been played by over 2 million people across Steam, Xbox Game Pass, and PlayStation Plus. It won Best Indie Game at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 and Game of the Year at the Indie Game Awards 2025.

The game shows that Unity can serve deeply personal, mechanically inventive projects just as well as it serves viral multiplayer hits.

7. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Developer: Jump Over the Age / Fellow Traveller | Released: January 31, 2025 | Steam: 92% Positive (1,900+ reviews)

Citizen Sleeper 2 is the best written game of 2025. That is not hyperbole. Eurogamer gave it a perfect 5 out of 5. It won Best Narrative at the Indie Game Awards 2025.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Citizen Sleeper expands on everything the original did well. You play as a digitized consciousness on the run through a decaying space station network, making choices that ripple through every interaction. The writing is precise, empathetic, and unforgettable.

Jump Over the Age, led by Gareth Damian Martin, built both Citizen Sleeper games in Unity. The sequel proves that the engine is just as capable of delivering intimate, narrative driven experiences as it is of powering massive multiplayer hits.

The Rest of the Class

Several more Unity games made an impact in 2025:

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor by Funday Games hit its 1.0 release on September 17, 2025, after selling over 1 million copies during Early Access. The bullet heaven roguelike spinoff of the beloved co-op franchise proved that the DRG brand has legs beyond its original format.

Slime Rancher 2 by Monomi Park finally left Early Access on September 23, 2025, three years after its initial launch. Built with Unity HDRP (High Definition Render Pipeline), it delivered a significant visual upgrade over the original. Monomi Park started as a two person team and grew into a studio of dozens.

Consume Me by Jenny Jiao Hsia won the IGF Grand Prize (Seumas McNally), the Nuovo Award, and the Wings Award at the Independent Games Festival 2025. Three IGF awards in a single year is exceptional. The deeply personal game explores the creator’s relationship with food and disordered eating.

Shotgun Cop Man by DeadToast Entertainment (published by Devolver Digital) earned a 96% positive rating on Steam. From the creators of My Friend Pedro, it features 150 levels of shotgun propelled precision platforming plus a built in level editor with Steam Workshop support.

What 2025 Tells Us

The Runtime Fee controversy of 2023 did real damage to Unity’s reputation. Developers left. Trust eroded. The fear that Unity could change the rules at any time has not fully gone away.

But 2025 answered the most important question: are people still building great games with Unity? The answer is overwhelming. PEAK alone generated more revenue than most publicly traded game studios earn in a year. Silksong became the community’s Game of the Year. Schedule I redefined what a solo developer can achieve.

The pattern across these hits is striking. Small teams. Often started in game jams or Early Access. Focused designs that play to Unity’s strengths rather than chasing photorealism. The engine did not get in the way. It enabled the games.

For the full picture on where Unity stands as a development platform, read our Unity in 2026 deep dive. It covers pricing, features, the roadmap, and the trust question in detail. For a side by side comparison with Godot and Unreal, check our engine comparison guide.

If you are starting your first project and wondering which engine to pick, our beginner’s guide covers the fundamentals. And if you want to understand how to market the game once it is built, our indie marketing guide has the numbers.

2025 was not supposed to be Unity’s year. After 2023, plenty of people wrote the engine off. The games told a different story.