Humble Bundle, Inc. is an online store where people can buy video games. It started by offering special collections of games called Humble Bundles. In these bundles, buyers decided how much to pay, and part of the money went to charity, while the rest was shared with the game creators. Humble Bundle still offers these limited-time bundles but now has a larger, more permanent online store for selling games individually. The idea for Humble Bundle began with Wolfire Games in 2010. After the second bundle, the company became its own separate business to handle promotions, payments, and distribution. In October 2017, the company was bought by Ziff Davis through its IGN Entertainment division.

Early bundles usually included games made by independent developers that worked on multiple computer systems, such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. These bundles did not use digital rights management (DRM), which is software that restricts how games are used. The bundles were released every few months and lasted two weeks. They received media attention, with some bundles selling more than $1 million. Over time, the bundles became more frequent and included games from well-known developers, AAA publishers, and games for Android devices. They also included bundles for game jams, digital copies of music, books, and comic books. Today, bundles are offered regularly, and individual games are sold through a permanent online store.

Humble Bundle supports several charities, including Action Against Hunger, Child's Play, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, charity: water, the American Red Cross, WaterAid, and the Wikimedia Foundation. By the end of October 2014, game developers had earned more than $100 million. By September 2021, the bundles had raised over $200 million for 50 different charities. The success of Humble Bundle inspired other companies, like IndieGala and Indie Royale, to offer similar "pay what you want" bundles for smaller games.

Humble Bundle has grown to include a dedicated online store called the Humble Store and a publishing division, Humble Games, to support independent games. The company is based in San Francisco, California, and employs about 60 people.

History

The idea for the Humble Bundle came from Jeff Rosen of Wolfire Games. He was inspired by similar sales of game bundles on the Steam platform, which helped spread the idea quickly online. He also learned from a previous "pay-what-you-want" sale for the game World of Goo, where more than 57,000 copies were sold, raising over $117,000 after fees. At this time, Rosen had strong connections with other independent game developers. For example, his brother David worked as a game tester for the Penumbra series, and Penumbra's composer, Mikko Tarmia, helped with Wolfire Games' project Overgrowth. Wolfire had also partnered with Unknown Worlds Entertainment to create a bundle based on their game Natural Selection 2. Ryan C. Gordon, who helped bring Lugaru and Aquaria to Linux, was also involved. With these connections and support from payment systems like PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout, Rosen was able to create the bundle. Later, the option to pay with Bitcoin through Coinbase was added, but this option was removed by 2025.

Rosen believed that making the purchase process simple was important for success. He avoided steps like requiring users to create accounts or use extra software, which might have discouraged buyers. He also included charities in the bundle, letting buyers decide how to split their money between developers and charities. Rosen supported Child's Play, which helps hospitalized children by providing games, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which works against restrictive digital rights management (DRM) practices. The "pay-what-you-want" model allowed buyers to give money directly to charities, which Rosen considered a success. Rosen and Wolfire employee John Graham handled technical support during sales, responding to thousands of requests through long hours of email and chat sessions.

Rosen and Graham planned a second Humble Indie Bundle, which launched in December 2010 and raised $1.8 million. They recognized the value of continuing this model and created Humble Bundle as its own company shortly after. Rosen and Graham were the company's founders. By April 2011, Sequoia Capital had invested $4.7 million in Humble Bundle, allowing them to hire staff to manage more bundles and customer service.

On October 13, 2017, Humble Bundle announced it had been bought by IGN Entertainment, a part of Ziff Davis. Humble Bundle would continue to operate independently, with no immediate changes to its business model. Graham said the partnership with IGN would allow them to improve their sales and charity efforts using IGN's resources. IGN's executive vice president, Mitch Galbraith, said Humble Bundle was a good fit for IGN and would help support its charitable efforts. He also addressed concerns about conflicts of interest, stating that IGN would keep its editorial team separate from Humble Bundle and follow policies to avoid bias in coverage.

In March 2019, Rosen and Graham stepped down as CEO and COO of Humble Bundle, respectively, with Alan Patmore taking over. They said the company had become stable and had many growth opportunities beyond their original goals. They planned to stay as advisors for at least the rest of the year.

In April 2022, 10 employees were laid off in engineering and customer support as part of a restructuring effort. In November 2023, an unknown number of Humble Games employees were laid off. In July 2024, all Humble Games employees were reportedly laid off. The company said it was "restructuring," but Humble Bundle itself would not be affected.

Business activities

Since the start, Humble Indie Bundle offers games for two weeks. Usually, three to five games are available, and buyers can choose how much to pay. Many bundles include special bonuses added halfway through the period to encourage purchases. Earlier buyers automatically received these bonuses, but after Bundle 9, these bonuses were only given to those who paid more than the average price. Some bundles also offer game soundtracks as part of the bundle or as extra rewards. Because the games are DRM-free, some bundles include the source code for the games.

Humble Bundle works with game developers to plan which games to include in bundles and when they will be available. Employees consider if a game will excite gamers. Arrangements with developers are usually finished one month before a bundle starts. Humble Bundle earns about 15% of the total money raised from each bundle.

Buyers can choose any price for the bundle. The website lets users decide how to split their payment between developers, charities, and a "Humble tip" that covers costs. Buyers can give all, none, or any combination to these groups. Later bundles allowed buyers to give the bundle as a gift. Games are usually available for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. Many bundles are the first time a game is released on macOS or Linux.

Buyers can often get codes to use on services like Steam, Desura, or Origin. To stop misuse, later bundles required a minimum price of $1. Starting in October 2013, Steam keys were automatically added to users’ accounts when redeemed, to stop key resale. Later, users could gift Steam keys to others through a unique link.

Android-based bundles began in January 2012. These bundles do not use codes for the Google Play store but instead let users download Android apps directly. Some bundles included games for both Android and Windows. In May 2015, the Humble Nindie Bundle was introduced, offering games from Nintendo’s eShop for the Wii U and 3DS. Initially, it was only available in North America. In August 2016, Capcom offered PlayStation 3 and 4 games through a Humble Bundle, also limited to North America.

In April 2021, Humble Bundle removed the charity slider, limiting charity donations to 5% or 15%. After feedback, they kept the slider and allowed full charity donations. In July 2021, they added a cap on charity donations, ensuring 15-30% of sales went to the company, but users could still choose their charity split. This change helped Humble support the PC storefront landscape.

The Humble Store is a separate system that lets developers sell games directly. It provides tools for developers to sell games on their websites and offers buyers an easy purchasing experience. Developers can use a widget on their sites to let users buy games. Some games, like FTL: Faster Than Light, used the Humble Store for crowdfunding rewards. Buyers can access all purchased games anytime. The Humble Store also sells books, audiobooks, and comics. As of May 2016, the Humble Store raised over $4 million for charities.

In January 2019, the Humble Store added support for Nintendo Switch and 3DS games. Humble also partnered with Epic Games to sell keys for the Epic Games Store.

After the Humble Android Bundle 5 in March 2013, the site started weekly sales with a pay-what-you-want model. These sales last one week, run alongside main bundles, and focus on a single theme. They work like regular bundles but are shorter.

The first Flash Bundle started in July 2014. These bundles last 24 hours and may repeat previous games or sales. They appear as often as once a week or once a month.

In October 2015, Humble launched a monthly subscription service. Subscribers receive a curated set of games each month, similar to other Humble products. Five percent of subscription fees go to charity. This service is compared to a book club, helping developers by offering themed bundles.

Analysis

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The first promotion was considered very successful. Rosen said that the team saw the million-dollar goal as a best-case scenario, but when the sale started, "it was immediately clear that we were on to something." Rosen later said that part of the success was due to Ars Technica writer Mike Thompson, who "immediately saw the potential" of the Bundle in an article he wrote before the sale period. Brandon Boyer of Boing Boing believed that the promotion provided a model that "seems it could and should be repeated." The move to offer games in a price and manner that consumers were willing to buy was different from larger software publishers that place artificial limits on their content. Mike Masnick of Techdirt believed the Humble Bundle promotion worked because it "focus[ed] on giving people real reasons to buy, rather than just feeling entitled to define the terms under which they buy and looking for ways to limit those who want to interact with you in a different manner." Rosen said that the source for the promotion's website has been requested by several other groups. He continues to believe that many similar charitable sales can be seen in the future because of the success of the Humble Bundle. For future Bundles, Rosen wants to include lesser-known games instead of World of Goo and Braid, but has already had to reject some developers' requests to be included in a Bundle, claiming the games' quality might damage the Humble Indie Bundle branding. Instead, he believes smaller games with no wide profile and that are "legitimately good" would be ideal for inclusion in future Bundles.

Because of the success of the bundle, other groups have started similar pay-what-you-want plans for other indie games, including IndieGala, Indie Royale, and LittleBigBunch.

PC Gamer named the Wolfire team as founders of the Humble Indie Bundle as their 2011 community heroes for their support of the indie game development market. Forbes listed John Graham in its 2013 "30 Under 30" leaders in the field of games for the success of Humble Bundle, while Rosen was recognized for the same in 2015.

After the end of the Humble eBook Bundle, John Scalzi noted that various factors, such as brand name recognition, a lack of DRM, a focus on charity, the uniqueness of the bundle and its format, and the variety of included authors, all made the Humble eBook Bundle a success. Scalzi notes that while people who participate in Humble Bundles will get less in net profit than they would have without the bundle (due to the variable percentages patrons can donate and publishers taking their cut of proceeds), they receive greater volume (the Humble Bundle sold 42,000 copies of eBooks in two weeks, almost as much as the average monthly bestseller). In conclusion, Scalzi praises the idea of the Humble Bundle and notes to future contributors that while the bundle is low-margin, it's also low-risk. Novelist Cory Doctorow, who organized both eBook bundles, noted that while no publisher aside from Tor Books would participate in the bundle because of no-DRM stipulations, they still raised around $2 million for books whose circulations were earning their authors little to no money.

Terence Lee of Hitbox Team also mentions that the Humble Bundle was a success for their game Dustforce, even after the bundle ended. When Humble Bundle first contacted the team and asked if they could port the game to Linux and bundle it, the game sold about ten copies on Steam daily. The day the Humble Indie Bundle 6 came out with Dustforce in it, sales through the Humble Bundle skyrocketed to over 50,000 copies per day. While Hitbox Team only received $178,000 out of the $2 million Humble Bundle made, the increased number of players caused daily sales of the game to jump from less than a dozen to around 50–60 copies per day.

On the other hand, Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy developer Edmund McMillen noted in a Tumblr post that the bundles are "not as successful as many would think." While the Humble Bundles are an excellent way for popular games to get a final boost in sales as well as to help lesser-known games get more attention, statistics have shown that sales dipped more in the years when Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy were in bundles than they were in following years. Ultimately, according to McMillen, Humble Bundles neither hurt nor help in the long run and now seem more of a tradition than anything else.

Despite the ability to get the games at nearly zero cost, Wolfire Games estimate that 25% of the traceable downloads for the first Bundle have come from software piracy by links provided in some forums that bypass the payment screen to access the games; Wolfire further surmises additional piracy occurred through BitTorrent-type peer-to-peer sharing services. Rosen noted they purposely removed much of the DRM associated with games to appeal to those who would otherwise engage in software piracy, through both having the games ship without DRM and by having only limited copy protection on their website. Rosen also stated that for about ten users that emailed Wolfire about being unable to pay for the software, he personally donated on their behalf. Rosen comments that there may be legitimate reasons for those who appear to be pirating the game, including the inability to use the payment methods provided or that they had made a single large donation for multiple copies. Rosen also considered that there are players that would simply forward the download links to "take pleasure in spreading the pirated links to their friends or anonymous buddies for fun." Wolfire Games did take action to stop predatory sites, such as the closely named "wollfire.com," from selling illegal copies of the bundle.

While aware of the presumed software piracy, Rosen says that Wolfire will take no steps to limit it, believing that "making the download experience worse for generous contributors in the name of punishing pirates doesn't really fit with the spirit of the bundle." Rosen noted that by offering the source code of the games as an incentive, they would hope that "the community will help build them up with the same vigor that crackers tear DRM down."

In preparing for the second Humble Indie Bundle sale, John Graham acknowledged that some may still download the game through illegal means, but also said that the organizers of the bundle gave their best effort to make the process of purchasing the games simple, and they also wished to create a social impact with the sales by including contributions to Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. An anonymous survey conducted by Wolfire for those who felt it necessary to acquire the second Bundle from other illegitimate sources showed that some preferred the option of using peer-to-peer sharing services like BitTorrent to improve the speed and reliability of the download; as a result, Wolfire added the option to download the games through BitTorrent, hoping to entice more people to acquire the game legitimately.

Several games in the Humble Indie Bundles have been released as open-source software as a result of the Bundles reaching certain sales levels. One such game was Wolfire's own Lugaru HD, where they released the engine under the GNU General Public License, and also included the various art assets, level designs, and other creative elements under a freely redistributable license for personal use. Their intent was to allow programmers to experiment and improve the game's engine using the associated assets. Wolfire later began selling the title Lugaru HD on the Mac App Store for $9.99. A company called iCoder used the open-source resources to recreate the same game for the App Store, charging only $0.99 for their version of Lugaru. iCoder claims they have the right to recreate and charge for the game under the GNU license, but Jeffery Rosen notes that this did not apply to the art assets. Also, Apple