Rust News: Game Sells 750,000 Copies, Outselling DayZ

Rust, the survival video game made by Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios, was only released in early access beta form on PC, Mac, and Linux on Dec. 11, but the game has already managed to sell a staggering amount of downloads.

According to the Rust Status Report #002 released by Facepunch Studios, the game has sold 750,000 units since launch, a number that has the company reeling. The amount of money generated by Rust is already 66 percent of the money generated by Garry's Mod in the eight years that the game has been active. In addition, Rust has been on top of the Steam sale chart for two consecutive weeks, beating out another popular survival game, DayZ.

While these numbers are a good sign that gamers have taken to Rust, Newman and the rest of the Facepunch team acknowledge that this level of popularity also brings with it new challenges that they must deal with.

"...It's also a curse because the amount of people playing has kind of given us a sensory overload. We see all these amazing things happening, voices from all directions, ideas, bugs, cheaters. And we're scrambling to catch up with everything. So please don't be offended if we're not doing what you want us to, if we don't respond to emails or tweets, if we're not administering the servers properly. We are still adjusting our trajectory, there's still a lot we want to do," Newman wrote in the Rust Status Report #002. 

Newman also reminded Rust users that the game is still very early in development, so when bugs and glitches occur it is important to remember to let the developer know rather than complain about how the game is not well put together.

"We feel like we aren't making it clear enough that the game is Early Access. Rust is still in development. This isn't 95 percent finished, like a regular beta. This is 10 percent finished. We've got the bare bone foundations of a game here. We're still developing it. This isn't just is trying to make excused for putting out a buggy game. This is how it is," wrote Newman. 

It will be interesting to see if Rust could become the next big indie game on par with DayZ or Minecraft and develop into a game that continues to grow and expand the experience that users are just beginning to explore.