Rust overtakes DayZ to become best-selling Steam title, makes $8.8m

DayZ has for the first time since its release in December been knocked off the top of Steam’s best selling list.

And its conqueror? None other than fellow early access sandbox title Rust.

Of course it’s unlikely that Rust’s overall sales have caught up with DayZ. It was announced on January 14th that DayZ had passed 1m sales while Dust sales stood at 150,000 copies as of Christmas Eve.

Note that Steam’s weekly chart, which specify the best selling title over the last seven days, still lists DayZ at No.1 and Rust at No.2. It’s not clear what time period the Steam’s standard best selling list covers, although as it’s updated daily it’s logical to conclude it covers the previous 24 hours.

Rust creator Garry Newman told Games Industry earlier today that Rust is on track to rival the revenue generated by his successful debut project Garry’s Mod, stating:

We never, ever expected anything to dwarf GMod’s success. I did some rough maths this morning: in terms of profits, from sales and royalties, in a month Rust has made about 40 per cent of what GMod has made in about nine years. We can’t really believe it.”

Garry’s Mod has to date sold 3.5 copies, generating over $22m in revenue. This number points to total life-to-date revenues of at least $8.8m for Rust.