Eleven years after launching on Steam, indie dungeon crawler Barony: Deserters & Disciples has crossed 1 million copies sold. Developer Turning Wheel LLC confirmed the milestone this week, with developer Josiah Colborn personally thanking the community for sticking with the game through more than a decade of updates, expansions, and DLC.
A decade-long grind that paid off
Barony first hit Steam in June 2015, drawing clear inspiration from classic first-person RPGs like Ultima Underworld and Daggerfall. The formula was simple on paper: procedurally generated dungeons, permadeath, deep role-playing mechanics, and cooperative multiplayer for up to 4 players. Pulling it off convincingly as a small indie studio was anything but.
What most players miss about Barony's longevity is how much Turning Wheel LLC kept feeding it. Regular updates, expansions, and downloadable content have kept the game fresh well past the point most indie titles fade into the backlog. The most recent addition, the Deserters & Disciples expansion, landed close enough to this milestone to feel like a deliberate victory lap.
What the Steam Summer Sale means for new players
To mark the 1 million milestone, Barony is currently sitting at 90% off during the Steam Summer Sale. That is not a typo. For a game with this much content and a decade of active development behind it, the discount makes the barrier to entry essentially zero.
Here's the thing: sales like this tend to drive a second wave of community activity. New players flooding in, guides getting updated, co-op lobbies filling back up. If you have been sitting on the fence about picking up a punishing dungeon crawler with genuine replay value, the timing here is hard to argue with.
Barony's place in the indie roguelike conversation
Reaching 1 million sales is not automatic for any indie game, let alone one that launched in 2015 before the roguelike genre exploded into the mainstream. Barony did it the slow way: consistent support, word-of-mouth co-op sessions, and a design philosophy rooted in actual classic RPG DNA rather than chasing whatever was trending.
The game is available on Windows PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch, which broadened its reach considerably beyond the PC-only crowd.
For players ready to jump in or veterans returning for the Deserters & Disciples content, the Barony: Deserters & Disciples strategy guides are worth bookmarking before your first run. Permadeath has a way of making preparation feel less optional. Check out the broader gaming guides hub for more roguelike and dungeon crawler resources while the Summer Sale window is still open.
