Dean Dodrill has just confirmed that Dust: An Elysian Tail just sold 1 million copies, across Humble Bundle, GOGcom, Linux, Mac, Steam, and Xbox Live Arcade.
Today, Dust: AET surpassed one million units sold. Thank you to @xbox, @steam_games, & @humble for their support in helping us get here!
— Dean Dodrill (@NoogyTweet) March 1, 2014
Originally released in 2012, the game is set in an anthropomorphic fantasy world. As Dust, you are equipped with the Blade of Ahrah, and followed by its guardian, Fidget. Dust is a beat’em up with role playing elements, allowing you to earn experience and level up by defeating enemies. NPCs are also scattered in the game world to sell items or give you quests.
Dust is somewhat the oddity in this AAA industry, as most, if not all, the elements of the game were made entirely by Dean himself. This included not only the main programming, but animation, voice acting, soundtrack, and some story. Of course, I only say somewhat since many indies are one man teams themselves, including the likes of Phil Fish and Eric Chahi.
Dean did not share a breakdown of the numbers, but Humble just added Dust mid-February, and he did reveal in an earlier tweet that more sales came on PC, where coincidentally it came up on more sales. Dean also made clear that the Xbox 360 port did about as well as the PC ports.
@Cowctus I can say it sold more on PC, but of course saw more discounts on that platform. It did do well on both platforms.
— Dean Dodrill (@NoogyTweet) February 24, 2014
Seems pretty obvious it was the DRM-free Humble Bundle release that finally brought Dust over, but there’s no need for petty infighting between fans of either platforms. Congratulations are in order for Dean this cross-platform hit.