The Witness clears more than $5M in its first week of sales

It’s safe a safe bet that Jonathan Blow will be able to work on games in the future and deliver his latest indie hit to new platforms. The creator of The Witness puzzle game said yesterday that the game sold more than 100,000 copies in its first week and generated gross revenue of more than $5 million — an amazing sales number for a title that didn’t come from a major studio. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, the biggest of the fall’s blockbusters, made $550 million in its first 72 hours on the market in November.

The amount is small compared to big-budget games that sell millions of copies and generate more than $100 million in a week. But it’s a significant amount of money for a small team, and it’s good omen for well-known independent game developers who strike out on their own and still want to remain financially independent for the sake of creative freedom.