You have apparently missed the last decade of trends in game popularity.
Do the games make the developers more money. 100%.
I'm not seeing actual data backing the claim, incidentally.
Well we can start with Divinity: Original Sin 2 outselling Wrath of the Righteous, Kingmakers and Crown of the Magister combined on Steam by double the units and 3x revenue and still having more active players than all of those games combined despite being several years older...
