When i say “word will get out”, it means the game will transcend the small niche community talking about it.
This is 2025, due to the nature of internet communities, I think effective marketing strategy doesn't work like that anymore.
Many games aren't that well-known by everyone, but they still sell a lot. For example, Buckshot Roulette sold over 4m copies within 1 year. This is very high number, more so if you consider it's made by one person. But are you seeing everyone talking about it? Absolutely not. It is still a successful game though.
Also keep in mind that big publishers like Microsoft, EA, SE etc will forever gain a very huge advantage in marketing over indie games. You will always hear about people talk about EA or SE games everywhere, even if you don't like their games. But we all know that having an advantage in marketing doesn't necessarily mean customers will be happy with their product.
Many people talk about DAV everywhere, but most of the traffic doesn't convert to sales. So does it matter if more people talk about certain titles these days?
Another example is unknown 9, an unknown game made by an unknown studio that only got attention everywhere because Bandai Namco published it. Traffics don't convert to sales in this case either.
By comparison, indie games that accomplished multi million sales entirely through words of mouth in niche communities feels more like an amazing accomplishment imo.
