Terraria is an indie title released on May 16th 2011 by the independent game studio Re-Logic through Valve's online service, Steam.(1) In less than a week, Terraria has quickly become a cult phenomenon mimicking the success of Minecraft.
On it's first day of release, Terraria had over 17,000 players online near its peak and after less than two days, it had sold over 50,000 copies online through spring.(2) The cheap cost of $9.99 coupled with the rampant support of fans through Facebook, twitter, and the various Let's Plays on Youtube have helped spread the word even further.
What is it that has made Terraria such success, though? For a large part of it, Terraria has succeeded for the same reason Minecraft has. Players are dropped off in a world with practically nothing and have to survive monsters and beasts to build their own world through mining resources, fighting off invaders, and cooperating with other players in order to advance and grow stronger.