Star Citizen goes for revenue record, but players spare no criticism
Star Citizen has had a very good seven months in terms of money earned. 2025 could be a record year for the developers, even though there is no shortage of player criticism.
Star Citizen is an incomprehensible phenomenon for many people. The title has been in early access since 2014, but that hasn't stopped it from raking in huge amounts of money from fans. Moreover, the current trend indicates that the year 2025 will be record-breaking in this respect (via GameStar).
It looks like a record year
From January to July 2025, Star Citizen recorded a 34 percent increase in revenue from the sale of spacships and support pledges compared to the same period last year. As of now, players have raised around 77 million dollars this year, which is the same amount they raised by the end of October 2024.
In May, one of the two major events that had a significant impact on the game's sales took place - Invictus Launch Week. This time, the event provided the studio with 29 million dollars, compared to 25 million in May 2024, which represents an increase of just over 17%.
Considering this data and the fact that November and December, along with May, are the most profitable months for crowdfunding, it looks like it's going to be a record-breaking year for Cloud Imperium Games studio. According to GameStar estimates, if current trends continue, the total revenues of Star Citizen in 2025 could range from 130 to even 150 million dollars.
Where did this increase come from?
The key reason seems to be the influx of new players to Star Citizen. In particular, players from Asia play a big role. The local market is developing very quickly, which was noticed by Elliott Chin, Vice Chief Marketing Officer at Cloud Imperium Games. He admitted that in 2022, Asia accounted for only 10-15% of the player base, but this value is growing very quickly.
In China, we've seen a growth of about 50% year over year, making it our top performer in Asia, closely followed by South Korea. And number three is Singapore.
Players on Reddit also point out other important aspects. For example, one of them is regularly adding a new type of ship for sale every month. Another person noticed a much better update pace, which helps keep players more engaged.
Player's criticism
However, money is not the only thing that Star Citizen receives from players in large quantities - the second is criticism. Many people complain about the state of the game and the way it is being developed.
In one of the posts on Reddit, attention was drawn to the developers focusing too much on time-limited events, instead of on permanent content. Many people in the community want more PvE content instead of PvP.
Moreover, there are threads where players talk about basic game features not working properly, such as equipment. Many consider this absurd, considering that early access started over 10 years ago. The title is also full of bugs, which, according to some fans, keep increasing with each update.
The way things stand with people falling over themselves to defend CIGs poor performance, we will move forward with more bugs and less working features, something needs to be done now or this game will end up only ever being a buggy disappointment.
Despite that, you just need to look at the huge revenues to see that a big part of the players believe in the creators' vision of Star Citizen and are willing to overlook the game's issues.
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Author: Martin Bukowski
Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).
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