If you’re in the video game scene, you’ve probably heard of Indie Game Joe, a one-man operation that has made hundreds of indie games go viral.
Since March 2026, Indie Game Joe has accumulated over half a billion views across social media and generated hundreds of thousands of wishlists for the 450+ games he’s posted about so far. That’s an unprecedented achievement, even for some of the biggest PR agencies in the industry, and Joe has done it all by himself, completely organically.
Earlier this month, I sat down with Joe for a candid conversation about how Indie Game Joe came to be, his future ambitions, and the man behind all the success.
It’s a conversation that took me a little by surprise, because behind those enormous numbers is a story that has little to do with social media algorithms, marketing strategies, or going viral. It’s about a man who spent years chasing the life he thought would make him happy, only to discover that it wasn’t quite what he’d imagined.
How Indie Game Joe Started
Joe’s early working life was about as far removed from video games as you could imagine. At 15, he dropped out of school to become a painter and decorator, a job he tells me he absolutely adored. That started to change in 2013, when he met a group of friends working in the video game industry. Through them, he began learning about game development and marketing, opening the door to an industry he might not have entered otherwise.
By 2020, Joe had committed himself to video games full-time, leaving his decorating career behind. His subsequent successes demonstrated that he had an instinct for getting games in front of audiences. In 2022, Hypercharge: Unboxed, a shooter in which players control miniature action figures inspired by the 1998 classic film Small Soldiers, became the second best-selling game on Steam and generated millions in revenue.
Two years later, Joe released a game of his own. Don’t Scream, a jump-scare horror game built around the simple but effective premise of surviving without screaming. Don’t Scream was a success, selling over a million units.
By the end of 2025, Joe appeared to have reached the kind of stability many people spend their lives working towards. His house was paid off, his debts were cleared, and he had even bought his dream car. He even became a dad for the first time. Joe tells me that, on paper, he “made it,” but something was missing.
Dealing With ADHD and Mental Health
In early 2026, Joe was diagnosed with ADHD, a moment that came during a period of his life when he felt like he had achieved everything he’d set out to do.
“I got to this mountain that I’ve always thought I’d never get to,” he tells me. “I got to the top, and I was just, like, what the fuck is this?”
Rather than the happiness he’d expected, Joe says he felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness.
“All this stuff that I’ve done, I thought was gonna make me really happy. Hasn’t? You know, like, the house being paid off and all this stuff. I’ve got a beautiful family. I’ve got my healthy son. I’ve got an amazing, supportive wife. And I just felt so lonely.”
During this time, Joe was diagnosed with ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms including inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation. He jokingly told me that his diagnosis came with the highest score that he had ever gotten on an exam, but on a serious note, his diagnosis came during this period of reflection. Joe tells me that he’s struggled mentally his entire life and has had lots of tests in his childhood to figure out exactly what was wrong, but never got the answers.
Joe tells me he didn’t have a true sense of purpose, and on a whim, he decided to use the skills he’d learned in marketing to help show off Indie Games.
“I remember being in the office the day I decided to start showing off Indie Games.”
Indie Game Joe Is Born
Joe decided to start Indie Game Joe as he reassessed what success meant to him. Rather than simply continuing along the same path, he began building something around a part of the industry that could benefit from his experience: independent games.
Since March 2026, Joe has achieved what many in the industry struggle with despite multi-million-dollar marketing budgets. Joe shared his social media account statistics with me, revealing that he has amassed more than 500 million views. Emails and DMs from developers he’s featured paint an even brighter picture, showing he’s created hundreds of thousands of wishlists across the 450+ games he’s already featured.
Again, those figures are particularly notable because Indie Game Joe isn’t a large marketing agency; it’s a one-man operation run by a guy from his converted garage office (which looks great, by the way).
For independent developers, visibility can be one of the biggest obstacles to success, and it’s becoming even harder as AI continues to make game development easier. The recent Steam Fest saw over 8000 games submitted, many of which were low quality and riddled with AI. A promising game can spend years in development only to struggle at the last hurdle because it can’t reach the people who might enjoy it.
Joe filters out the nonsense, sometimes spending hours a day sifting through emails, DMs, or Steam itself to find the next game to feature.
More Than the Numbers
It’s easy to judge Indie Game Joe’s success by the numbers alone. More than half a billion views, hundreds of thousands of wishlists, and over 450 games featured in just a few months is an extraordinary achievement. But I have a fairly direct question for Joe: why? Why do this, and what’s in it for Indie Game Joe?
Joe tells me that what he does with Indie Game Joe is purely for Indie developers. To date, Joe hasn’t asked a penny from any Indie developer he’s advertised, and while he has done a few consultations via his website (both free and paid), he doesn’t see that as a revenue driver.
Success obviously brings opportunity, and Joe tells me dozens of companies have reached out with financial offers, all of which, to date, he’s refused.
Joe is simply in it for the “love of the game”.
What’s Next for Indie Game Joe?
With hundreds of games already featured and hundreds of millions of views behind him, Joe has built a significant audience in a remarkably short time. That success has meant that he’s inundated with requests. At times, he tells me that it is a lot to take on for a one-man operation, but he encourages developers to continue to reach out.
Earlier this month, Joe set up a Patreon, which he tells me isn’t for developers to back because they will get guaranteed coverage, but is a means for the community to support what Indie Game Joe does.
Understandably, Indie Game Joe as a “brand” takes up a lot of time day to day, and Joe tells me it’s gotten to the point where he’s losing time in his day when it comes to making his own games. So a Patreon is a good compromise, he said. But again, Joe made it clear that it’s completely voluntary.
At the very least, Indie Game Joe seems to have become a major name in the independent games scene, but the person behind the brand is still figuring things out.
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Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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