Human: Fall Flat Had Over 14 Million Game Pass Users

Human: Fall Flat had 14.2 million Game Pass users, per the data revealed by Stephen Totilo. This data follows his report on indie developers siding with the ABK acquisition. Since Game Pass offers indie games much potential, it seems only natural that they would want it to improve even more. Another recent title that has benefitted by being on Game Pass is Escape Academy, which has accumulated over 1.5 million users on the service.

The indie devs' brief stands out (we've heard from some of these other parties before)

Indies say MS buying Activision helps Game Pass and GP helps indies get their games discovered

– iam8bit: Escape Academy had 1.5m+ players via GP
– Curve: Human Fall Flat had 14.2m GP users pic.twitter.com/92EqyZk4VQ

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 14, 2023

Xbox Game Pass has over 25 million users, so the fact that Human: Fall Flat has appealed to over half of these players is a massive feat for the developers. Indie games often go under the radar due to a lack of marketing budget, among other reasons. Game Pass allows such indie games to get discovered as they sit in a massive catalogue accessible by over 25 million people.

Granted, the game’s quality also plays a massive role in this, and if a game doesn’t deliver a good experience, it won’t retain players for the long run. But we are strictly speaking of games where developers have poured their heart in, and they know the game will do great if only it receives that push of discoverability. Escape Academy and Human: Fall Flat are examples of those games.

The screenshot of the briefing shared by Totilo also discusses how the Game Pass increases a game’s discoverability and lowers the cost for players as they are more inclined to try something on a subscription service. Once enough players recognize the game as good enough to justify their purchase; it can lead to more people purchasing the game on other platforms.

In addition to that, Game Pass can become even better if more AAA games appear on the service. It draws in more players to subscribe to the service, increasing the chance that they will also try other games. More subscribers for Game Pass means more opportunities for indie games, which is why indie developers want the ABK deal to go through. And these metrics are more than enough to justify their reasoning.

Related Reads:

• Indie Studio Founder Says Xbox Game Pass Relieves Pressure From Devs
• Dead Cells: The Game With The Greatest Indie Collaborations Of All Time
• With Tools Like Unreal Engine 5, Indie Games Could Soon Achieve AAA Recognition

Human: Fall Flat is a puzzle-platform game developed by Tomas Sakalauskas, founder of No Brake Games, and published by Curve Digital. The indie title was launched on PC, macOS, and Linus on July 22, 2016. After seeing stellar success, it has since received ports for PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, iOS, and Android.