Graveyard Keeper earns over $250K after free giveaway

You might not expect giving away a game for free would earn its publisher over a quarter of a million dollars, but that’s exactly what happened with Graveyard Keeper recently. Developer Lazy Bear Games and publisher tinyBuild gave away the 2018 medieval graveyard management sim for free from Thursday through Monday afternoon, and they’ve earned a pretty penny because of it.

“Many are asking if it’s worth it, to give away a game like this for free,” tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik said in a post on X. He noted the game earned over $250,000 through DLC sales — and that’s just on Steam, as tinyBuild doesn’t have the console figures yet. “So it makes sense when you have a lot of DLC.”

Graveyard Keeper has three DLC expansions as well as an OST and art book available, and all of them can be purchased as part of a bundle. No surprises here: That bundle is currently on sale for $8.35, or 80% off.

The Graveyard Keeper giveaway was ostensibly done to drum up interest in the sequel, which was announced the day the giveaway started. Nichiporchik shared in a follow-up post that Graveyard Keeper 2 has now landed on over 450,000 Steam wishlists, putting it in Steam’s top 100 most-wishlisted games.

Graveyard Keeper 2 is due out later in 2026. The original game is no longer free, but if you still want to check it out, you can purchase it at a steep discount. Graveyard Keeper is on sale for $3.99 (80% off) on Steam until April 17.