Dazed Games hits one million copies sold in just two days

It all began in 2017 with two students in Gothenburg who shared a strong interest in programming and games. Carl-Vilhelm Johansson and Melvin Olsson met at LBS Kreativa Gymnasiet in Gothenburg. They soon discovered that they shared the same dream: to one day create and release their own games. When the University of Skövde visited their school, it sparked the idea of taking their interest further. After graduating from high school, they continued on that path together, studying game development and programming.

During their studies, they developed their first game prototype, Out of Hand: Deluxe. The game was later released for free on Steam, and in 2024, Carl-Vilhelm and Melvin took the leap and started their own game studio, Dazed Games.

However, when a paid version of the game was launched in the summer of 2025, sales were significantly lower than they had hoped. Instead of giving up, they decided to learn from the experience and start over with a new idea.

"We updated the first game, but quickly realized that it wasn’t worth continuing to develop it. So, in August last year, we started working on the friendslop game How to Fish instead", says Melvin Olsson, co-founder of Dazed Games.

This time, they chose a different approach. From an early stage, Dazed Games began sharing the development of How to Fish on social media and invited their audience to follow the journey. It turned out to be a winning strategy.

A community grew around the game, while their videos received millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Interest in How to Fish grew rapidly, while connections made through Science Park Skövde and the startup program opened doors within the games industry. This led, among other things, to established game studio Landfall making a project investment.

After a year of development, How to Fish was released on Steam for PC in August 2026. The result was far beyond anything the two developers could have imagined. In just two days, the game had sold more than one million copies.

"It’s completely crazy and not something we expected. Of course, it feels amazing, but we need some time to process it. It’s difficult to take in. Our goal was to sell around 200,000 copies, and watching the numbers continue to climb so quickly was almost surreal", says Melvin.

At the same time, the huge success brings new challenges. When a game suddenly attracts hundreds of thousands of new players in a short period of time, it also brings more reactions, requests, and bug reports.

"Since the game has done as well as it has, we’re also getting a lot of reactions and bug reports", Melvin explains.

The community has therefore become an important part of the game’s continued development. Today, Dazed Games’ Discord channel has more than 40,000 members, and the developers continuously receive feedback from players.

"We have moderators helping us with the Discord channel, which is great. We also have a wishlist on Steam that currently has one million wishes", says Carl-Vilhelm Johansson, co-founder of Dazed Games.

Carl-Vilhelm and Melvin point to several factors that they believe contributed to the game’s success. How to Fish is a relatively inexpensive and humorous multiplayer game that is easy to play with others. But they also believe that one crucial factor was that they started marketing the game long before its release.

"If I were to give advice to others thinking about making a game, I’d say start marketing as early as possible. Don’t release the game for free, and don’t release a demo either if it’s a short social game. The potential buyer will already have played it for free and might not want to buy it when it’s released", says Carl-Vilhelm.

For Dazed Games, it has also been important to seek support from others and make use of the opportunities available to those who want to start and grow a company.

"Make use of the support that’s available. Everything we’ve learned about running a business is thanks to the startup program. Also, get help from talented people when creating your game", Carl-Vilhelm explains, before continuing:

"We’ve done most of How to Fish ourselves, but we’ve also brought in people with other areas of expertise during development. For example, Patrik Carlsson worked on the sound design, and Martin Weidenborn created the music."

Following the hugely successful launch, the journey is far from over. How to Fish will continue to be developed with new updates, and the plan is to release the game on Xbox and PlayStation as well.

At the same time, the two founders are already looking ahead. The success of How to Fish has given Dazed Games a strong foundation to build on, and according to Carl-Vilhelm and Melvin, they already have an idea for their next game.

"How to Fish took a year to develop. Keep an eye out in a year or two", the pair conclude.