How Giving Away Graveyard Keeper for Free Made tinyBuild $250,000 in Just Five Days

📌 Quick Read

• tinyBuild gave away Graveyard Keeper for free on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation from April 9–13, 2026, to celebrate the reveal of Graveyard Keeper 2
• Despite the base game being free, DLC sales on Steam alone generated nearly $250,000 — console numbers are still pending
• The game hit an all-time concurrent player peak of 46,305 on Steam, ranking as high as #39 on Steam’s most-played chart
• Graveyard Keeper 2 surpassed 450,000 wishlists on Steam during and after the giveaway period
• The sequel was announced at the Triple-I Initiative Showcase on April 9, 2026, and is coming later this year to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2
• The original game has three DLC packs — Stranger Sins, Game of Crone, and Better Save Soul — plus a digital artbook and OST

How Giving Away Graveyard Keeper for Free Made tinyBuild $250,000 in Just Five Days

There’s a version of this story that sounds completely backwards: a publisher gives its game away for free, and somehow ends up richer for it. But that’s exactly what happened when tinyBuild decided to hand out Graveyard Keeper at no charge across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation earlier this month — and the numbers are hard to argue with.

From April 9 to 13, 2026, anyone could grab the 2018 medieval cemetery management sim developed by Lazy Bear Games and keep it permanently, no strings attached. The promotion was timed to coincide with the reveal of Graveyard Keeper 2 at the Triple-I Initiative Showcase, and the strategy behind it was straightforward enough: get fresh eyes on the original, build anticipation for the sequel. What nobody quite anticipated was how enthusiastically those fresh players would open their wallets once they actually started playing.

Nearly $250,000 From DLC — And That’s Just Steam

Once the giveaway wrapped up, tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik took to X to share some eyebrow-raising figures. In just five days, the publisher pulled in nearly $250,000 in DLC sales for Graveyard Keeper — and crucially, that figure only reflects PC revenue through Steam. Console numbers from the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store hadn’t come in yet at the time of his post.

“Many are asking if it’s worth it, to give away a game like this for free,” Nichiporchik wrote. “So it makes sense when you have a lot of DLC.”

It’s a remarkably blunt way to describe what is, when you think about it, a clever bit of math. The base game normally retails at $19.99. Give that away, and the people who stick around — the ones who get hooked and want more — become paying customers anyway. The catch is that this playbook really only works when there’s enough post-launch content to justify it. Eight years of expansions helps.

Graveyard Keeper currently has three full DLC packs: Stranger Sins (2019), Game of Crone (2020), and Better Save Soul (2021), alongside a digital artbook and the original soundtrack, all available for purchase separately. That’s a solid catalogue of additional content sitting there, waiting for new players to discover it. If you’re jumping into the game fresh and finding yourself fully absorbed in the dark humor and grind, spending another $10–15 on an expansion doesn’t feel like a stretch.

A Record-Breaking Weekend on Steam

Beyond the money, the numbers around player activity during the promotion were equally striking. On April 12, Graveyard Keeper hit an all-time peak of 46,305 concurrent players on Steam — a figure that absolutely dwarfed the game’s original launch peak of around 17,000. For comparison, the game previously saw post-launch spikes of roughly 7,000–9,000 players. This blew all of those out of the water.

At one point during the promotion, the game climbed to #39 on Steam’s most-played chart, sitting above the likes of Terraria, Cyberpunk 2077, and Path of Exile — not a bad crowd to be outranking for an indie title that originally launched to mixed critical reviews back in 2018.

The fact that the critical reception wasn’t universally glowing at launch makes the game’s enduring popularity even more interesting. Graveyard Keeper has always resonated more strongly with players than with press — it holds a 4.4 out of 5 rating on the PlayStation Store across more than 3,800 user reviews. Over time, it built a loyal community around its quirky blend of simulation, dark comedy, and resource management. This promotion essentially introduced that experience to a new generation of players all at once.

The giveaway also didn’t extend to Nintendo Switch, for those wondering, so the promotion’s reach was limited to PC and the two major console platforms. You can also check out how other titles have been navigating free game strategies and player engagement in our coverage of the latest gaming news.

Graveyard Keeper 2 Is Now Swimming in Wishlists

The sequel was always the real goal here. By funneling a fresh wave of players into the original, tinyBuild created a pipeline of potential buyers for Graveyard Keeper 2 — and it appears to have worked spectacularly. During the giveaway period, the sequel accumulated 400,000 wishlists on Steam alone, a figure that has since climbed past 450,000 as interest continues to build.

Graveyard Keeper 2, still in development at Lazy Bear Games, is a notably larger and more ambitious project than its predecessor. Players take on the role of the Grand Inquisitor, tasked not just with running a graveyard but with rebuilding an entire town and leading an undead army to fend off a full-blown zombie apocalypse. Zombie-based automation — including reanimated corpses literally powering your workstations by walking in circles — is a core mechanic. The scope has expanded significantly, and the sequel is targeting a 2026 release window across PC (via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.

For context, the original game has sold over four million units in its lifetime — which makes Graveyard Keeper 2’s 450,000+ wishlists an encouraging early sign, especially for an indie sequel. This kind of marketing can have ripple effects on other titles too, and it’s worth watching how publishers handle upcoming releases in 2026 — something we’ve been keeping a close eye on with titles like those featured in our ARC Raiders coverage.

A Smart Play That Others Should Study

What tinyBuild pulled off here isn’t just a good news story for them — it’s a case study worth paying attention to. The “free game with paid DLC” model has been discussed in theory for years, but seeing it generate a quarter of a million dollars in less than a week on a single platform makes the argument in a way that spreadsheet projections never quite can.

It’s the kind of move that only works with the right game at the right time. An eight-year-old title with three DLC packs, a loyal fanbase, and a sequel on the horizon is about as ideal a candidate as you’re going to find. The promotion generated goodwill, created a player surge, and converted a meaningful percentage of those newcomers into paying customers — all while giving tinyBuild a major marketing win for Graveyard Keeper 2 that no advertising spend alone could have manufactured.

Whether the console numbers end up being additive icing on top or reveal an even bigger story remains to be seen. But for now, the Steam figures alone tell you everything you need to know: sometimes, free really does pay. Publishers navigating rough patches — like the situation surrounding Starfield’s ongoing issues — might want to take notes.