// KOTAKU — GAMING
YouTube Channel Accused Of Taking Advantage Of ‘Vulnerable, First-Time Indie Developers’ With Expensive Advertising Campaigns
For every indie game success story, there’s an unquantifiable number of indie game flops. Balatro, Meccha Chameleon, Stardew Valley–these are the exceptions to the rule; outliers in an overcrowded market.
SteamDB estimates that 18,933 games have been released on the Steam storefront in 2026. That means roughly an average of 72 new games have dropped on Steam every day this year. Over 2,600 of these games have zero reviews. Over 7,600 have only netted 1-9 reviews. Yet, 978 of these 18,933 games have over 500 reviews.
A bit of quick math reveals that 60 percent of games on Steam get no more than 9 user reviews and many get none at all. Meanwhile, roughly 5 percent are breaking the 500 Steam review threshold. But how many of those games in that 5 percent are AAA titles, with deep-pocketed publishers backing them? SteamDB estimates that only 364 of those 978 games are tagged as indies–so, roughly 37 percent. And, yes, it’s debatable if some of these actually qualify as indies.
This is all a long-winded intro designed to justify a statement that anyone with half a brain would have already agreed with: getting eyes on your indie game is a crapshoot. This is why devs often turn to indie publishers for help, but even that comes with its own problems.
Being an "indie publisher" must be the best job in the world. You do no work and just take 50% (or more) of the rev from games talented people spent years of their lives working on. But it's cool cause you're "indie" just like they are!
Tim Bender, the CEO of Manor Lords and Darkwood publisher Hooded Horse, has stated that the “vast majority of indie publishers” are “predatory and opportunistic,” and often “basically abandon” games that aren’t immediate hits. Tyler Glaiel, one of the programmers and game designers behind Mewgenics, has also criticized indie publishers for offering predatory deals that result in them taking “50% (or more) of the rev from games talented people spent years of their lives working on.”
So, what’s the alternative for indie devs? Self-publishing. Of course, indie devs aren’t marketing gurus; they’re developers. This is why stories of indie devs getting scammed by resellers hit the headlines every single year. It’s also why devs resort to paying independent creators and influencers for marketing.
Over the past 24 hours, indie devs on X have been rather publicly voicing their dissatisfaction with a YouTube content creator named Clemmy. Clemmy owns and runs Best Indie Games, a YouTube channel with over 190,000 subscribers that “highlights fantastic indie games since they are wonderful (if often overlooked) experiences.”
It all started with a tweet from game developer devoriahub, who posted an unconfirmed breakdown of what Clemmy supposedly charges indie devs for exposure. The numbers might surprise you: $2,228 for a package that includes a YouTube Short, a small minute-long feature in a YouTube video alongside dozens of other creators, a Twitter post, and a newsletter shout-out–and that’s the cheapest tier.
Here is an example from clemmy.One of the devs that i shared sent me this.This is crazy.They also want 380$ for one twit. @IndieGameJoe https://t.co/OqEGeZWMM9 pic.twitter.com/GxN55U5zrb