S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro 2033 and Sherlock Holmes: Forbes compiled the top of the "richest" games of Ukrainian development

Usually when it comes to Ukrainian games, most people remember the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro series. However, Ukrainians have created many other projects that also have their own audience and bring income to the authors.

Forbes has compiled a TOP10 of the most popular Ukrainian games and analyzed how much revenue they have generated. The ranking includes projects created by Ukrainians (where the entire development team or the vast majority of it are Ukrainians), released on PC, sold more than 100,000 copies, and continue to be sold at the time of ranking creation. It is important that the rights to the game do not belong to citizens of the Russian Federation, and the development company is not from Russia or Belarus.

The games in the list are arranged by the number of copies sold ─ from the best-selling to the least-selling.

TOP10 Most Popular Ukrainian Games

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a series of first-person shooter games with elements of survival horror and role-playing. The events of the game take place in our time, in an alternative world within the territory of Ukraine, in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

• Developer: GSC Game World
• Copies Sold: 33.3 million
• Revenue: $34.1 million

Metro

Metro is a series of games that combine survival horror and first-person shooter genres, based on the novel "Metro 2033" by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. The events unfold in the post-apocalyptic Moscow metro, populated by mutants.

• Developer: 4A Games
• Copies Sold: 11.4 million
• Revenue: $72.7 million

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a series of adventure detective games based on the works of English writer Arthur Conan Doyle, but with standalone stories.

• Developer: Frogwares
• Copies Sold: 7 million
• Revenue: ≈ $16.8 million

Cossacks

Cossacks is a series of historical real-time strategy games, with events revolving around wars in Europe in the XVI-XVIII centuries.

• Developer: GSC Game World
• Copies Sold: 5.5 million
• Revenue: $6.5 million

Party Hard

Party Hard and Party Hard 2 are stealth games with strategy elements, where the player must stop a noisy party by killing the guests.

• Developer: Pinokl Games / Kverta
• Copies Sold: 735,200
• Revenue: $2.6 million

Bigfoot

Bigfoot is a first-person cooperative horror game where the player has to search for and hunt Bigfoot ─ a mystical mammal resembling a humanoid ape.

• Developer: CyberLight Game Studio
• Copies Sold: 640,800
• Revenue: $9.1 million

The Sinking City

The Sinking City is an open-world adventure puzzle game based on the works of American horror author H.P. Lovecraft. Private detective Charles Reed arrives in the city to investigate mysterious events.

• Developer: Frogwares
• Copies Sold: 249,900
• Revenue: $3.8 million

Tukoni: Prologue

Tukoni: Prologue is a point-and-click adventure game based on the books by Lviv writer and illustrator Oksana Bula. The story revolves around a book character named Tukoni the Traveler. While traveling through the forest, he helps various local animals, solves puzzles, and explores locations to find necessary items.

• Developer: Dream Operator, Oksana Bula
• Copies Sold: 242,000

Ostriv

Ostriv is a city-building strategy game created in 2014 by an anonymous indie developer from Kharkiv. The player leads an eighteenth-century Ukrainian city and develops it.

• Developer: Yevheniy
• Copies Sold: 209,500
• Revenue: $4.8 million

Cliff Empire

Cliff Empire is a city-building strategy game where players develop cities located on cliff tops on a radiation-affected Earth.

• Developer: Lion's Shade
• Copies Sold: 180,100
• Revenue: $1.5 million

Source: Forbes