Peak, a small and relatively cheap co-op indie game about climbing mountains with your friends, has become a breakout hit on Steam. It sold over a million copies in its first week due almost solely to good word of mouth… and people making puns about the name.
In a gaming landscape dominated by big AAA multiplayer live service titles, there’s been a renaissance of co-op games for people who aren’t feeling competitive and just want to have a good time with their friends.
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Titles like Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., and Chained Together have shown just how powerful this formula can be. The fact that the price tag on these games is so much lower than the $80 standard makes them incredibly appealing for people who just want a couple fun gaming sessions with a group of friends.
Peak is the next big indie co-op game, and it has already sold over a million copies in the first week after launch due to a deceptively simple marketing strategy.
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Indie climbing game Peak sells a million copies in a week
For big gaming companies, games often have to sell millions of copies just for them to break even. But the wonderful thing about indie game dev is that a really solid idea executed well can create a game that’s truly special that doesn’t break the bank. Enter Peak.
Peak is a co-op climbing game where you’re tasked with traversing four different biomes, each of which have different weather conditions, to try and make it to the peak of that day’s mountain.
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The maps swap every 24 hours, giving players a new experience every time they open the game. So, despite it only being $5 on Steam, people can expect huge value out of this title and something they can play with friends for years to come.
🏔️PEAK is OUT NOW on Steam‼️
Scale the mountain as a group of lost nature scouts (or solo) in this co-op climbing game
Work together, communicate, and support your fellow scouts to make it to the peak… or perish 💀
Finally… we made PEAK pic.twitter.com/6kssz85I54
— AGGRO CRAB 💥 (@AggroCrabGames) June 16, 2025
Aggro Crab, a studio that helped with development on this game and has released successful indie titles like Another Crab’s Treasure and Going Under, was surprised and a little irritated by just how successful Peak has been.
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“why did this stupid jam game sell more copies than another crabs treasure im gonna crash out,” Aggro Crab said on their official Twitter account.
For those unfamiliar, a jam game is when devs get together and essentially speedrun making a game, using existing in-engine tools and a solid core concept to flex their creative muscles and just make something. This was a collab between them and Landfall, the studio behind games like Clustertruck, with them just wanting to make something cool. Turns out, they made Peak.
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The name accidentally created a viral marketing campaign that cost them nothing and gave them a breakout hit.
One tweet that people thought was funny garnered millions of views while simultaneously linking out to a Steam page where people could buy the game for cheap. Some AAA game devs wish they had marketing this smart.
They also made a little guy named Bing Bong that people just really like. So that’s something.
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And, while that $5 price tag certainly helps with selling copies, especially since someone could feasibly spend $20 bucks to give their friend group something new to play together. But it may also just be selling because, well… it’s Peak.
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