New Zealand’s Horror Fishing Game ‘Dredge’ sells over 1 million copies

Dredge has officially blasted beyond its initial sales expectations.
Dredge

Dredge, the cosmic horror fishing game from New Zealand, has sold over 1 million units since its initial launch in March 2023. The figure comes from Black Salt Games, who shared the information with Game Developer during an interview at PAX Aus 2023.

Producer Nadia Thorne told Game Developer, “We hoped to maybe sell 100,000 copies in our first year…. that would have been amazing. That was a top estimate when we were setting our expectations. We smashed through those targets.”

Thorne said that Dredge hit the studio’s 100,000 sales target within 24 hours.

It’s a fantastic result for such a strong game, which the GamesHub review described as “a masterclass in atmosphere, worldbuilding, tactile mechanics, and game flow.”

The core team of Black Salt Games is made up of only four people – producer Nadia Throne, programmer Joel Mason, and artists Alex Ritchie and Michael Bastiaens. Dredge is published by the UK-based Team17, which has become notable for signing and pushing several big-ticket titles from Australia and New Zealand (Moving Out 2, Hell Let Loose, and Conscript, among others).

Black Salt Games is set to release its first paid expansion pack for Dredge, The Pale Reach, in November 2023. The studio had initially announced its first DLC as The Iron Rig, but this was delayed into 2024, due to marketing reasons.

Dredge: The Pale Reach releases on 16 November 2023 for PCPS5PS4Xbox Series X/SXbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

10/06/2024 03:38 pm GMT

Edmond was the founding managing editor of GamesHub. He was also previously at GameSpot for 13 years, where he was the Australian Editor and an award-winning video producer. You can follow him @EdmondTran