Detailed stats regarding the sales (with additional comments about conversion rate etc.) are available here:
http://www.gameproducer.net/2007/05/09/sales-stats-gish-121000-sales/

This is an eye opener! I've known about Gish through word-of-mouth before IGF and I've heard nothing but great things about it. With such positiveness surrounding the title, I automatically assumed it would do well on par with top selling casuals games.

I'm surprised they didn't try going to more popular portals like Yahoo, MSN, Big Fish, and ArcadeTown particularly the last two as they're more open to other genre's.

Well, this is definitely something to mull over.

Well...I could approach this from the Reflexive side with IGF winner Wik or the GameTunnel side with its Indie game coverage, but both I find give discouragement as to the viability of Indie games on the PC.

To start off, I don't think it is much if any easier today. Josiah mentions that Bridge Construction Set overall and currently is outselling all the other games. BCS is very similar to Armadillo Run and I bet the sales numbers are quite similar based on the ones mentioned above. I think the sales of AR aren't demonstrative of it being easier to sell games. I think there is simply a larger number of people who are accessible through the PC and will pay for a good physics simulation type of game.

Gish is on Reflexive's portal and the numbers, unfortunately, aren't all that great (nor, honestly, are Wik's), even though I would say Reflexive, due to its own personal history has a much more traditional audience than most of the online portals.

That said, I think that Gish's UI made it a bad fit for the casual portals (go back and select your level and you'll see what I'm talking about). Certainly it could have sold a few more copies, but I wonder how many.

The bigger issue here is whether or not Indie games can be profitable on the PC. Based on the numbers I've seen, it seems that a few of the more niche titles (lux, bcs) have been successful, but the majority of Indie titles have struggled to make much if any money. (that is if we decide on the more modern indie definition that removes casual games like Westward from Indie)

Mutant Storm was not a money-maker on the PC nor, to my understanding, was Eets (released within the last year).

I think a lot of us hold a lot of hope for the console side helping, but for the VAST majority of Indie developers the console side isn't a possibility, so I think it is a separate discussion topic.

My greatest hope is that more websites will post information about these games, because I still believe that if more people knew about them, more would try them and eventually buy them. I think awareness is the number one issue for these games. (the other key issue is simply that the PC isn't the best way to reach gamers - the number of websites and magazines dedicated to it make that quite clear)

There are some GREAT titles that people are simply missing out on, to their and indie developer's detriments.

The problem with Gish, is that it looks crap. End of Story.

It might garner all the great reviews by the indie press, but that target audience is not large enough. It's not going to tempt the average punter to take a gamble on it, unlike the friendly inviting casual games on the market.

Although I do not have an industry insight into the indie gaming market as Russell above, I would bet that Eets was a lot more successful. Just visit the respective websites, and look at the games. Eets is bright, pleasing to the eye, it looks fun. Gish looks like a Windows 95 era homebrew.

Eets has also managed to carve out its own community with its DIY tools, which also gives the gamer and the developer a free support network. It's available on Steam and is about to pop up on Xbox Live Arcade, where are all the other indie games? (Incidentally, Wik has just appeared on Steam)

Indie Developers, get out there and sell your product.

"Mutant Storm was not a money-maker on the PC nor, to my understanding, was Eets (released within the last year)."

Well, according to the charts at MajorNelson's site, Eets isn't really doing that well on the Xbox 360 either. So maybe the problem lies with the game itself.