For indie developers: which devlogs, press and videos bring the buyers who buy from you.

01How they sell

• One-offThe game sold direct as a DRM-free download, with a supporter edition, the soundtrack and an artbook as extras.
• DonationsPay-what-you-want pricing above a minimum, or a tip for the developer on the download page.

02Payments it reads

• PaddleDevelopers selling worldwide use Paddle as merchant of record for the tax; transactions and refunds are read.
• Lemon SqueezyDownloads and soundtracks sold through Lemon Squeezy with license keys, linked by checkout custom data.
• StripeDevelopers who run their own store use Stripe Checkout for the game and extras.

03Where buyers come from

• DevlogsDevelopment posts bring followers who read for months, then buy at release.
• Press and reviewsA review sends readers whose referrer and purchases sit side by side.
• Let's playsVideos and streams of the game send viewers through description links, often in bursts.
• RedditPosts in game-dev and genre subreddits send players who try the demo first.

04What Tally answers

1. What did a direct buyer read before buying?

   Their journey in the visitor list shows every visit with source, pages and engaged time, often several devlogs before the purchase.

   Visitors and journeys

2. How many visitors go to the store page instead of buying direct?

   Clicks out are counted, and marking the store button with data-fast-goal gives its completions by source, next to direct purchases.

   Goals and funnels

3. Which press coverage sent buyers?

   The referrer breakdown puts revenue beside each site, so a review that sold direct copies can be told from one that only sent visits.

   Sources with revenue

4. Do followers buy at release or later?

   Path to purchase gives the median time from first visit to purchase and a histogram of the wait, which for a devlog follower can be months.

   Path to purchase

05Numbers worth watching

Goal conversion

Store-button clicks over visitors, by source, the part of interest that goes to the stores.

Revenue by source

Direct revenue by source, read knowing the stores' sales aren't in it.

Median time to buy

The median time from first visit to purchase, which shows how long a devlog keeps paying off.

06An example

07Setting up

1. Any HTML sitePut the tag on the game's site, the devlog and the buy page.
2. Lemon SqueezyAdd the visitor's id to the Lemon Squeezy checkout link as custom data from the buy page.
3. Mark the store and wishlist buttons with data-fast-goal so store-bound interest counts beside direct sales.

08Questions

• Most of my sales are on Steam. Is Tally still useful?

  It shows the direct slice and how many visitors you send to your store page; Steam's sales and wishlists aren't read, so it won't show the whole picture.

• Is pay-what-you-want pricing counted correctly?

  Each payment is counted at the amount paid, without tax, in US dollars at the day's ECB rate.

• Can I see which let's play sold copies?

  If the creator uses a UTM-tagged link, the campaign breakdown shows its revenue; otherwise the referrer shows where the visit came from.