Due to its heightened discoverability, promotional features, and fairly visible user data, Steam is probably the most trend-driven storefront in all of gaming. Hits beget imitators, and that goes double on Steam. When there's a Steam hit, there are sure to be distant ancestors inspired by that success, especially when that hit doesn't take long to imitate. We're still seeing loads of Vampire Survivors-likes, for example. This year, another big trend has exploded on Steam, and it's almost entirely thanks to Rusty's Retirement.
Rusty's Retirement was released on Steam in April 2024 by Haiku, the Robot solo developer Jordan Morris of Mister Morris Games, now and perhaps forever known as the Rusty's Retirement guy – which is "completely fine by me," he says. It's become a life-changing success for Morris, who says Rusty has sold about 550,000 copies to Haiku's 200,000.
