Horses Hits 30K Sales but Santa Ragione Still Faces Losses

Santa Ragione’s witty horror title Horses has sold 30K copies worldwide and generated $100K USD in revenue. However, the studio says it is still $42K short of recovering its own development costs. The update follows a turbulent release shaped by platform bans and an unconventional distribution path across alternative storefronts.

The game was blocked on Steam, and later denied release on the Epic Games Store over content concerns, forcing Santa Ragione to publish it on GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store instead. Despite limited storefront access, the title gained traction and visibility through controversy and independent distribution.

According to co-founder and studio director, Pietro Righi Riva, the revenue was allocated in a structured breakdown tied to prior commitments. Around $30K was paid to director, Andrea Lucco Borlera, for years of development work on the project. A further $62K went to private funders, covering their original $50K investment and providing returns.

That distribution left only $8K for Santa Ragione.

Riva described it as insufficient to fund a new project, but noted it as partial progress toward recovering the studio’s $50K self-funded development costs. He also confirmed that the studio currently lacks sufficient cash reserves to begin production on its next title.

Horses Censorship Debate and Platform Moderation Concerns Explained

Santa Ragione previously stated that Horses uses “grotesque, subversive imagery” to explore themes of power, faith, and violence, and criticized what it described as opaque moderation decisions by major storefronts. The studio argued that lawful artistic works for adults should remain accessible and that distribution restrictions raised broader concerns around censorship in games.

Despite its commercial and distribution challenges, Horses has received industry recognition, winning the 2026 IGF Nuovo Award, and Best Experience at the Italian Video Game Awards.

The game also received a final update this week. It added Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, and Russian language support, marking the end of its post-launch cycle after a highly restricted but closely followed release trajectory.

Ultimately, Horses shows how platform restrictions and distribution limits can outweigh sales performance in determining whether an indie game actually recovers its costs.