Mina the Hollower just launched this week and immediately burst onto the scene. As much as its reviews, there is one detail that has surprised the fans the most.

The game had been in development for more than six years. And it has arrived as Yacht Club Games’ first major original title since Shovel Knight. Despite all of these, the game is priced at $20 only.

However, this low price was never a gesture of generosity, as per Yacht Club co-founder and director Sean Velasco. This is how he explained the launch price of Mina the Hollower (via Bloomberg):

"We don’t want the price to be something that anyone is even going to question. If we didn’t think we’d make more money doing this, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

Initially, there were discussions about launching the game for $30, $35, or even $40. But in the end, everyone decided that $20 was the right number. The goal was to make the purchase feel like an "instant buy" in the market, which is already crowded with high-quality releases.

Talking to RPG Side, Velasco stated that players are "feeling squeezed financially" and have more games competing for their attention than ever before. That's why they wanted the game to feel like a no-brainer purchase rather than something the players would postpone.

Now it seems the low-price idea is working. Mina the Hollower sold roughly 55,000 copies on Steam in less than a day. To put this into perspective, Shovel Knight reportedly sold around 75,000 copies during its first week across multiple platforms.

Despite this low price, the game is leaving no stone unturned to make fans fall in love with it. It has already become the highest Metacritic review-scored game of 2026, beating the likes of Forza Horizon 6 and others.

For just $20, the game delivers a lengthy adventure packed with exploration, secrets, replayability, and dozens of hours of content.

That's why the price tag never seemed to be a problem. Rather, it looked like a must-buy.

Why Mina the Hollower Needed to Be a Hit for Yacht Club Games

The pricing strategy also becomes easier to understand once we look at the stakes facing Yacht Club Games. Mina the Hollower has been in a long developmental phase, and it has grown far beyond its original scope, with close to $5 million in investments. That's why it became the most ambitious product of the studio.

Quite evidently, the team kept aside all the other projects and put its whole focus on Mina the Hollower. Sean Velasco had already described the game as a “make-or-break” moment for the company. This proved that poor sales might force the studio to implement cost-cutting measures or seek outside investments.

That is why Yacht Club prioritized accessibility over maximizing revenue per copy. The studio wanted players to buy the game immediately, and they did.

Despite the relatively small profit margin, the revenue generation went beyond all expectations. The developers relied on quantity this time, but they didn't compromise on quality at all.

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Written by

Nilendu Brahma

Edited by

Yask Kotak