Humble Bundle

Humble Bundle, Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedNovember 24, 2010; 13 years ago (2010-11-24)
Founders
  • Jeff Rosen
  • John Graham
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Number of employees
60[1] (2017)
ParentZiff Davis (2017–present)
Websitehumblebundle.com

Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and the rest split between the game developers. Humble Bundle continues to offer these limited-time bundles, but have expanded to include a greater and more persistent storefront. The Humble Bundle concept was initially run by Wolfire Games in 2010, but by its second bundle, the Humble Bundle company was spun out to manage the promotion, payments, and distribution of the bundles. In October 2017, the company was acquired by Ziff Davis through its IGN Entertainment subsidiary.

Initial bundles were typically collections of independently developed games featuring multi-platform support (including Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms) provided without digital rights management (DRM). Occurring every few months, the two-week Humble Bundles drew media attention, with several bundles surpassing $1 million in sales. Subsequently, the bundles became more frequent and expanded to include games from established developers, AAA publishers, games for Android-based devices, bundles promoting game jams, and bundles featuring digital copies of music, books and comic books. Bundles are presently offered on a more regular basis, with a persistent storefront for individual game sales.

The Humble Bundle offerings support a number of charities, including Action Against Hunger, Child's Play, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, charity: water, the American Red Cross, WaterAid and the Wikimedia Foundation.[2] By the end of October 2014, participating developers had grossed more than $100 million[3][4] and by September 2021, the total charitable amount raised by the Bundles exceeded $200 million across 50 different charities.[5][1][6][7][8] The success of the Humble Bundle approach has inspired a number of similar efforts to offer "pay what you want" bundles for smaller games, including IndieGala and Indie Royale.

The Humble Bundle operation has since grown to include a dedicated storefront, the Humble Store, and a publishing arm, Humble Games, to support indie games. As a corporation, Humble Bundle is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with about 60 employees.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Handrahan, Matthew (May 23, 2017). "Humble Bundle has raised over $95 million for charity". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Wikipedia 15 contributors Archived 2019-06-20 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved January 15, 2016
  3. ^ Brigthman, James (2014-12-16). "Humble Bundle has raised over $50 million". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 2022-06-05. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  4. ^ Humble Bundle raises $50m for charity, developers gross $100m Archived 2016-06-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  5. ^ Nutt, Christian (2015-10-13). "Humble Bundle sheds staff at San Francisco HQ". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  6. ^ Brightman, James (September 15, 2017). "Humble Bundle has raised over $100m for charity". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  7. ^ Kerr, Chris (June 25, 2019). "Humble has raised $150M for charity through bundles and storefront". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  8. ^ Kaser, Rachel (September 30, 2021). "Humble Bundle has raised $200 million for charitable causes". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.