Cloud Imperium January 2026 Sales Revenue Up 8.1% Year-Over-Year

Year 2 of the new leadership team's reign over Cloud Imperium Games began on a solid note, recording an 8.1% year-over-year increase in cash shop sales. Last month set another record for January with $8.4 million in sales according to the CCU Game Dashboard. While not explosive growth like January 2025's 44.2% YoY growth in cash shop revenue, the growth is in-line with my expectations of a 10% growth in sales in 2026 if sales of Squadron 42 are not included in the cash shop total.

As a note for 2026 I will continue the practice of adding the previous year and the 3-year average in the monthly sales chart. I like the three year average because I feel it gives a longer-term historical perspective. I have the feeling the metric will make CIG's marketing department look good in 2026. For January, sales were 20.6% over average sales in January for 2023-2025.

The $937.6 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of January was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1,061.9 million ($1.06 billion) in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $937.5 million (through 31 January 2026)
• 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 $1.130.1 million ($1.13 billion), or $1.123.4 million ($1.12 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.

I realize that including data from 2023 in an article covering the first month of 2026 isn't great, but Cloud Imperium has a history of not providing financial data in a timely manner, even to governments. For example, CIG has failed to submit its financial accounts to UK Companies House by the 30 September deadline in 5 of the last 6 years. Stale data is just a fact of life when observing CIG.

New user accounts - For those interested in the number of new accounts created, January was the 8th month in a row the number of new accounts rose year-over-year. The streak began one month before the implementation of the new referral system in July 2025. 

In January new user account creation increased by 71.8%, to 58,423, compared to January 2025's 34,005 accounts. The major change in the monthly charts in 2026 is the removal of an attempt to project the number of accounts created in a month. Between the effectiveness of the new referral system and the expected release of Squadron 42 sometime in 2026 I couldn't come up with a way to model the result.

What to look for - I see three things observers should be on the lookout for that might affect the numbers.

1. Fallout from the shutdown of Ashes of Creation. Tomorrow Intrepid Studios shuts down operations, thereby killing the game, such as it was. Will any of the fallout from AoC's collapse splash onto Cloud Imperium Games and Star Citizen? Theoretically no, but if Squadron 42 does not launch this year, expect the cries of "Scam Citizen" to echo even louder than in the past.

2. Publication of 2024's financial report. Cloud Imperium is in a bit of a Catch-22 situation. Don't release the report in February and get accused of hiding bad news. Not a good look following the collapse of Intrepid Studios. But due to Cloud Imperium's practice of greatly delaying financial news, a release now would probably be bad as the company is expected to have lost millions of dollars in 2024.

3. The new patch release cycle. The constant release of new content last year helped retain interest and increased spending to new heights. Will the new bi-monthly (every other month) release schedule slow down interest? I believe February is the first month without a scheduled patch release in quite awhile. Will  year-over-year revenue decrease?