Real Localization Results: How an Indie Roguelike grew unit sales with CJK Localization
If you're interested in releasing globally, growing your players, and increasing revenues, give us a ping: info@ecigames.net
Localization vendors love talking about how localization gives you access to millions of new players. We talk about your potential revenues, the new markets you can access, and how localization will conclusively improve your release.
But, that’s all just talk.
We thought you’d be more interested in seeing some real numbers, real releases, and results from real players:
Mortal Glory - Redbeak Games
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/mm4mm6/i_localized_my_game_to_11_languages_here_are_the/
In January 2020 (when that year still felt innocent), Redbeak Games released their fantasy roguelike Mortal Glory. Just over a year after release, the developer was kind enough to share their release figures in a Reddit post to help other indies.
Before diving into the sales figures, let’s lay out some context:
- Game: Mortal Glory
- Scope: Indie
- Price: $7.99 (USD)
- Genre: Tactical, Management, Roguelike
- Developer: Redbeak Games, based in Finland
- Localization: 12 Total Languages (English, French, Italian, German, EU Spanish, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Polish)
- Release Date: January 29, 2020
Mortal Glory launched without localization in January 2020, adding loc a little over 2 months post-release.
What’s particularly fascinating about Redbeak’s figures is that they provided sales rankings from pre- and post-localization. The results are fascinating, solidifying observations we’ve discussed over the last few years:
Italian sales didn’t change
One of the most notable observations from these figures is that Italian actually became less popular (contextually) after localization, which is really just as other countries moved up the list.
But this does highlight the issue with FIGS we discussed in our 2025 white paper “The Age of FIGS is over”. Italian just isn’t as popular a language in games as it used to be, and it’s often the first of the EFIGS group that gets dropped.
Check out the white paper if you’d like to know more about the changing face of “core” localized languages: https://www.ecigames.net/media/the-age-of-figs-is-over-white-paper
China Skyrockets from 9th to 2nd in Sales
It’s fairly obvious that China stands out from all other markets included. While we don’t know the exact figures for English-speaking markets, it’s clear that China is up there with them in terms of sold units. At 24% of all sales, it highlights how Simplified Chinese is an opportunity that can’t be missed. It further shows how important Simplified Chinese localization is for indies, as discussions about the market can often end up focusing on only AAA and AA titles.
The fact that China was 9th in sales before localization also shows the hunger of Chinese gamers for new Indie titles, even those without localization. This is particularly true for titles with strategic or management features, as is the case with Mortal Glory.
From pre- to post-localization, sales in China grew from just 3% to 24% - a 12.5x increase.
Simplified Chinese is not a language to miss, the results speak for themselves.
Japanese Players appreciate localization
Mortal Glory’s sales in Japan also grew dramatically after localization. This isn’t surprising as Japanese has always been a core localization language, and Japanese players vastly prefer playing games in Japanese…as you’d imagine.
Post-localization, Japanese sales grew from 0% of overall sales to 5%. While not as dramatic as Chinese, this shows how the APAC region, in particular, appreciates localization, perhaps even more than European markets.
Redbeak also shared how much investment it required from them. As the game wasn’t built to be localized it had to be done after the fact. That took 160 hours, a considerable amount of time, but only cost $2,575 USD. That’s not an insignificant spend but the sales it helped generate show that the cost was worth it.
As Redbeak states:
“My takeaway from these results is to prioritize CJK translations (Chinese, Japanese, & Korean)”
Redbeak Games went on to release Mortal Glory 2 in 2024, where they maintained their CJK localizations but dropped Italian and European Spanish: