Graveyard Keeper earns $250,000 through free promotion.

Graveyard Keeper , a management simulation game set in a cemetery, announced its sequel, Graveyard Keeper 2, on April 10, 2026. To celebrate the release of the new game, the publisher announced that they made $250,000 (approximately 40 million yen) in profit from a free giveaway campaign on Steam during the five-day period.

Graveyard Keeper earns over $250K after free giveaway
https://www.polygon.com/graveyard-keeper-free-giveaway-sequel-steam-wishlists/

'Graveyard Keeper' is a dark, slow-paced game where you play as a gravedigger, butchering corpses and cooking with human flesh. A Nintendo Switch version was released in February 2020. You can get a better understanding of what 'Graveyard Keeper' is by reading the review article below.

A review of the Nintendo Switch version of 'Graveyard Keeper,' a controversial game where you can live a darkly slow life dissecting corpses, eating human flesh, and trading organs - GIGAZINE

To celebrate the announcement of 'Graveyard Keeper 2,' the sequel to 'Graveyard Keeper,' developer Lazy Bear Games and publisher tinyBuild gave away the original 'Graveyard Keeper,' released in 2018, for free from April 9th to 13th, 2026 (local time). The campaign saw a surge in users, making it the 39th most played game on Steam, and tinyBuild CEO Alex Ničpolčik reported on X that 'Graveyard Keeper 2' had reached 400,000 Steam wishlist registrations.

Look at that graph

Graveyard Keeper is currently the top39 most played game on Steam, propelling the sequel to 400k wishlists pic.twitter.com/7bbMARIjkN

— Alex Nichiporchik (@aNichiporchik) April 12, 2026

Furthermore, according to CEO Nichiporchik, the free distribution of the main 'Graveyard Keeper' game increased DLC sales, generating approximately $250,000 (about 40 million yen) in revenue from Steam alone. CEO Nichiporchik stated, 'Many people question whether there is value in 'giving away games for free' like this. This time, we not only increased the number of wishlists for the sequel, but we were also able to boost DLC sales. Therefore, if there is a lot of DLC, giving away the game for free makes sense.'

Many are asking if it's worth it, to give away a game like this for free

Outside of the currently 400k wishlists for the sequel, we've also

Made almost 250k usd from selling DLCs for the original. This is just on Steam. Haven't gotten the console numbers yet

So it makes sense… https://t.co/37DHqMAgyY

— Alex Nichiporchik (@aNichiporchik) April 13, 2026

While the free promotion has ended as of the time of writing, 'Graveyard Keeper' was 80% off on Steam. Several bundles including the soundtrack and expansion packs were also available.

The sequel, 'Graveyard Keeper 2,' is scheduled for release in the second half of 2026.

Steam: Graveyard Keeper 2