No Rest for the Wicked lead wants to "repeat" the success Baldur's Gate 3 had launching out of Early Access, but hopes to "keep growing" like Minecraft or Fortnite after that "for years to come"

No Rest for the Wicked - the gorgeous Early Access ARPG from Ori and the Blind Forest maker Moon Studios - has seen a big resurgence lately thanks to a deep discount and a new co-op update, but director Thomas Mahler hopes to turn the game's success into legs long enough to stand alongside the likes of Minecraft or Fortnite.

To coincide with No Rest for the Wicked's Together update, one that finally added much-requested co-op to the Diablo-flavored game, the developers put it in a deep 40% sale that shot it up Steam's best sellers chart. The one-two punch of the update and a discount moved the needle quite a bit for a game whose momentum had slowed.

Within 15 days, No Rest for the Wicked sold another 500,000 copies, bringing its overall to 1.5 million and counting. Studio CEO Thomas Mahler now says that sales haven't really dipped, even after that 40% off sale.

"Wow - even after the sale ended, our sales are still absurdly strong," he tweets, explaining that he knew many ARPG lovers were waiting for co-op and, thus, decided to push the update as hard as possible with the aforementioned discount and a free weekend. "The goal was simple: Make it as easy as possible for people to try the game. We were confident that once players got their hands on it, they'd have an absolute blast."

"Money is tight for a lot of people right now, and they're more careful about what they buy," he adds. "But our conversion rates were through the roof, which tells me something important: People are still willing to spend money on the right products - you just have to make it easy for them to see why it's worth their hard-earned cash."

With all the newfound success, Mahler went on to say that 1.0 could blow up even bigger as it reaches a finished state and hits consoles. "I'm hoping that we might just be able to repeat the kinda success that Larian had with Baldur's Gate 3 - And if we do that, we'll now have a platform with Wicked that will allow us to continuously add more content and make things even more deep AND expansive," he continues.

At that point, Mahler optimistically sees the game reaching greater heights and snowballing into the kind of monster hit that even Diablo hasn't managed to mutate into. "Ultimately I see Wicked more in line with titles like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Fortnite, GTA V," he tweets. "Games that people purchase that'll keep growing and blossoming for years to come."

Baldur's Gate 3 "launched into Early Access at full price, and personally I never loved that approach," says No Rest For the Wicked boss explaining why it's going up to $60