In May Cloud Imperium Games, makers of Star Citizen and Squadron 42, recorded its best cash shop sales in the company's 13 year history. The $28.9 million is sales as recorded by the CCU Game dashboard last month was 17.3% higher than last year's $24.6 million in May 2024. For the year sales through the CIG cash shop hit $62.3 million, a 32.2% increase over the first five months of 2024.
The $836.3 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of May was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $960.7 million in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).
- Sales/Pledges: $836.3 million (through 31 May 2025)
- Other cash shop revenue: $2.3 million (through 31 December 2023)
- Subscriptions: $39.5 million (through 31 December 2023)
- All other sources: $82.6 million (through 31 December 2023)
In addition, the company has received a total of $68.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2023 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020 and another $1.9 million in 2023. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $1.029 billion, or $1.022 billion when excluding the returned funds. An additional $12.6 million in loans issued in March 2025 and due for repayment on 31 December 2027 are not included in the total.
One billion dollars in funding - With the release of the 2023 financial report the amount of money confirmed received by Cloud Imperium rose by $25.8 million. Even without trying to estimate the money still not reported by CIG, adding in known outside investment pushes the total money raised to develop and run Star Citizen and Squadron 42 has exceeded $1 billion. In the future I'll report the total amount raised to the nearest million instead of one hundred thousand dollars as I have in the past.
A record Invictus event - The annual Invictus sales event brought in a record $24.2 million between 15-27 May.
This year's event beat the 2024 event's sales by 25.3%, or $4.9 million. The biggest reason for the increase was the sale of the Idris, which is now in
Star Citizen. The big year-over-year increase on day 2 of the event was due to CIG giving in to player pressure and selling more of the new multi-crew ship than planned.
To put this year's Invictus event in perspective, the $24.2 million sold was only $1.3 million behind the $25.5 million raised during the entire first quarter of 2025.
A monthly sales record - Not only did the Invictus event set a record. May 2025 set a single-month sales record as well.
The previous record was set in November 2023 with $28.4 million.
A new revenue type - I've added a new category to the known revenue total. In the 2023 financial report published on 2 May CIG revealed that the Sales/Pledges counter does not account for all cash shop revenue. I first noticed a difference in the 2022 financial report. Over the years 2022 & 2023 the total came to $2.3 million.
New user accounts - I often point out that sales revenue does not correlate to new account creation. This held true in May. While YoY monthly revenue increased by 17.3% last month, new account creation decreased by 4.0%.
The same held true for the event as well. In 2024, the Invictus event attracted the creation of 75,320 accounts. A year later, despite a 25% increase in sales, YoY account creation dropped 7% down to 70,157.
For the year, 232,221 accounts were created so far in 2025, a 3.6% decrease from the first five months of 2024.
What to watch for - With the release of the 2023 financial report the public learned that CIG spent an average of $13.6 million a month. Assuming that CIG continues to receive $2.2 million per month in subscriptions and other revenue as it did in 2023, the company will need an average of $11.4 million in cash shop sales in 2025 too keep from losing money. That is, if spending remains constant and does not follow its historic trend of rising 20% per year.
So far cash shop sales are ahead of that pace, totaling an average of $12.6 million per month through the first five months of 2025. But the summer months, especially the third quarter, are CIG's slowest months. Can the new leadership team keep revenue up enough before the lucrative fourth quarter arrives?
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