▶ New PC and Console Categories… 2025 APAC Awards Bringing Indie to the Mainstream
▶ The triumph of ideas, not scale… Indie games Duck Corp and Limbus Company win awards simultaneously.
Global market intelligence firm Sensor Tower officially announced the “Sensor Tower APAC Awards 2025” on February 26th. This awards ceremony, which recognizes leading games and apps from publishers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, significantly expanded its scope beyond mobile by introducing a PC and console category for the first time this year. Of the 54 award-winning titles, 14 were Korean games and apps, once again demonstrating the power of K-content.
What caught the eye at this year’s awards weren’t just AAA titles costing hundreds of millions of won. The Chinese indie game “Escape from Duckov,” developed by just five people, garnered attention by winning “Best PC Indie Game,” while South Korean indie studio Project Moon ‘s “Limbus Company” was selected for “Best Storytelling Game,” proving the potential of K-indie on the global stage.
Tarkov Turns the Duck into a World Turns the World Upside Down
As the name suggests , ‘Escape from Tarkov’ is a humorous parody of the hardcore extraction shooter ‘Escape from Tarkov’. Developed by Team Soda, a small development studio under BILIBILI, the game is a top-down PvE escape shooting game with a cute duck character. It has been praised for successfully capturing the tension of the genre without the bloody PvP competition.
Released on Steam and Epic Games Store on October 16, 2025 Escape from Duckop surpassed one million copies sold within five days of its release, and surpassed two million in less than two weeks. Its peak concurrent player count reached 550,000, ranking it third on Steam’s global popularity rankings.
Steam user reviews are 97% positive, maintaining the highest rating of “Overwhelmingly Positive.” Team Soda distributed a pre-launch demo, securing over 100,000 “Wishlists” and supporting mod creation through the Steam Workshop from day one, fostering a voluntary user community. The reasonable price of 16,500 won also contributes to lowering the barrier to purchase.
The Pride of K-Indie: Project Moon and Limbus Company
While Deukkov was writing the Chinese indie myth, the success story of indie games in Korea was quietly but steadily continuing.
‘Limbus Company’ , which won the ‘Best Storytelling Game’ award at this year’s awards, is the work of Project Moon , a small domestic indie developer founded in 2016. Project Moon is a developer that has been building its own dystopian worldview for over 7 years, from its first work ‘Lobotomy Corporation’ in 2016 to ‘Library of Ruina’ in 2021 and finally to Limbus Company.
Limbus Company has proven its global success with its unique worldview and content updates, demonstrating the potential for growth for indie developers. According to Sensor Tower, Limbus Company will rank first in daily active users (DAU) among PC indie turn-based RPGs as of 2025, and with approximately 600,000 DAU, it is also continuing its growth on mobile.
Project Moon is attracting attention not only for its successful games but also for its continued growth. Project Moon’s revenue has grown rapidly, reaching 6.5 billion won in 2022, 35 billion won in 2023, and 58.3 billion won in 2024. The company has also signed an investment agreement to build a new headquarters in Gwanggyo, Suwon. This growth is a powerful testament to the Korean indie scene, demonstrating that it doesn’t have to be a large corporation to be successful.
Major Korean game companies also hold their own: A total of eight games won awards.
In addition to Limbus Company, major Korean game titles also graced the awards ceremony.
Nexon’s “Ark Raiders” was named the “Best PvPvE Game” after selling 14 million copies since its release on October 30th of last year. Its extraction-style gameplay, combining combat, stealth, and survival elements, has garnered significant popularity not only in the West but also in Asia and Latin America.
Shift Up’s ‘Stella Blade’, which won the ‘Best PC Action Game’ award, became the global best-selling hack-and-slash title with its 2025 PC release following the PlayStation 5 release. Netmarble’s ‘Seven Knights Rebirth’ ranked first in both sales and downloads among new global turn-based RPGs, winning the ‘Best Turn-Based RPG’ award.
In addition, Krafton’s “Enjoy” won “Best PC Life Simulation Game,” and “Snake Clash” won “Best Hyper-Casual Game.” Hangame Poker was named “Best Poker Game” after surpassing $250 million in cumulative sales, ranking first in Asian poker game sales for four consecutive years since 2022.
The APAC Awards highlight the potential of indie games.
According to Sensor Tower, the global digital economy will reach $167 billion in 2025, with in-app consumer spending growing 10.6% year-over-year, and non-game app revenue will surpass games for the first time. Furthermore, with the rise of cross-platform gaming, this year’s awards have expanded their scope to include PC and console categories.
Amidst these market shifts, the creation of a separate “PC Indie Game” category is symbolic. It’s a data-driven, official declaration that indie games are no longer a “fringe” of the mainstream market. The fact that DuckCorp’s five-person team and Project Moon have been recognized alongside Nexon and ShiftUp on the same award list is the most compelling evidence yet that ideas and storytelling, not scale, can now drive the market.
“The Indie Rebellion Continues”
Meanwhile, Deukkov’s success wasn’t limited to a one-time sensation. In February 2026, an official collaboration with the original “Escape from Tarkov” was announced, drawing attention once again. This marked the unusual moment of a parody joining hands with the original.
Project Moon has also expressed its intention to continue its indie identity by developing new packaged games, leveraging Limbus Company’s stable revenue stream. Project Moon Director Kim Ji-hoon has repeatedly emphasized, “We want to develop games across diverse genres in the future,” adding, “To achieve this, a stable revenue structure is essential.” Limbus Company has successfully laid that foundation.
The Sensor Tower APAC Awards annually select the most notable apps and games in the APAC region based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative indicators, including number of downloads, in-app purchase revenue, number of active users, ratings, and market and industry influence.
This year’s awards sent a clear message: the APAC gaming market is a fiercely contested battleground, with massive capital competing against each other, but it’s also a stage where a single idea and a few developers can turn the tables. In an era where creativity and narrative, not scale, drive the market, the rebellion of small indie companies is no longer an exception, but rather a growing trend.
The full list of Sensor Tower APAC Awards 2025 winners can be found on the ‘Sensor Tower APAC Awards 2025 Winners Announcement’ page.
