Since its inception, the Humble Indie Bundle offerings are typically a two-week period where between three and five games are offered at a pay-what-you-want model. Most bundles have featured added bonuses that are announced midway through the period as added incentive for purchasing the games; previous purchases automatically receive these bonuses (after Humble Indie Bundle 9, these midway bonuses were made exclusive to above-average buyers). More recent bundles have included a "beat-the-average" bonus should the purchaser contribute more than the current average price others have performed. Other bundles have featured game soundtracks as either part of the core bundle or as an extra reward. With the DRM-free nature of the offered games, the source code for several games has also been included as part of the bundle's offerings.
Humble Bundle works with developers to determine scheduling and availability of games, and make decisions about which games to include within bundles, asking themselves "will this be exciting for gamers", according to employee Richard Esguerra. The full arrangements with developers to create the bundle typically conclude a month before the bundle goes live. The Humble Bundle group earns about 15% of the total funds raised.
The purchaser is able to name any price for the bundle. The Humble Bundle website interface gives users the chance to determine how to distribute their contribution, defaulting to a specific split between the developers, the charities for that event and a "Humble tip" which is used to cover hosting and other costs of the bundle. The purchasers can choose to give all or none to any of these groups, or any combination of these. In later bundles, purchasers can also buy the bundle as a gift for others. Games are typically available as standalone clients for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux-based systems; in many cases, the bundles represent the debut of a game on the latter two platforms.
The purchaser can often also obtain redeemable codes for the games on services like Steam or, less often, Desura or Origin. To avoid abuse with these services, later bundles require a minimum purchase price of $1. Starting on October 31, 2013, Steam keys are automatically applied to the user's Steam account when redeemed, in an attempt to prevent the resale of keys. Subsequently, due to feedback, individual product Steam keys from bundle sales were allowed to be giftable to other users, giving them a unique URL through which the receiver could then redeem the key through Steam.
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Android-based Bundles were first launched in January 2012. These Bundles do not feature redemption codes for the Google Play store, but instead require the user to install the Humble Bundle which downloads the Android application package files for the apps directly to the user's device. Some bundles have included games available both on Android and Windows, allowing users to redeem the game for both systems. In May 2015, the Humble Nindie Bundle was introduced, which is the first Humble Bundle offering that includes games from a digital store on dedicated gaming consoles, being the Nintendo eShop on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in this case. Due to logistical complications however, the initial offering was limited only to North America, although future offers may expand into other territories. Similarly, in August 2016, Capcom offered several of its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games through a Humble Bundle (using PlayStation Network redemption codes), though also limited to North American users.
In April 2021, Humble Bundle announced that among other interface changes, they were removing the charity slider, and instead limiting the charity portion that one could give to either 5% (the default) or 15%. However, after criticism from both developers and users of the store, Humble said in May 2021 they would reverse this decision and retain these sliders, including the ability to pay fully to charity, as part of their overall site redesign. Later in July 2021, Humble announced they will implement a cap on charity amounts, assuring that between a minimum of 15-30% is kept through the storefront, though users will otherwise still be able to customize the charity split to this level. Humble said this cap was necessary for them to continue to benefit users in "the PC storefront landscape".
Humble Store
The Humble Store is an extension of the sales system developed for managing the Humble Bundles. It offers the capabilities of the payment and customer services that they had created for the various Bundles to independent developers as an alternate marketplace for these games. According to Joshua Knoles of the Humble Bundle team, they "wanted to create something that would allow developers to easily sell their games through their own web site as well as provide a painless buying experience for purchasers". Once developers have signed on with the Humble Store, they are given a widget that they can include on their web site which allows users to purchase the game (the Humble Store was usually inaccessible unless one directly searched for the widget for a particular game). In some cases, such as with FTL: Faster Than Light and Sportsfriends, the developers used the Humble Store to provide tier rewards during their crowd funding phase using sites like Kickstarter. As with the Bundles, once purchased the buyer has access to all software games from the store at any time. Ben Kuchera of "Penny Arcade Reports" compares the Humble Store as a potential competitor to virtual storefronts like Steam, offering a more personable level of service to developers and customers than these larger systems. In July 2016, Humble Bundle created its Gamepages service that offered developers that are already using the widget dedicated website space to allow them to sell and advertise their game, avoiding the need to secure this website space on their own.
A dedicated Humble Store was launched in November 2013, where single games instead of bundles were put on daily sales, with 10% of the revenues being given to charities including the EFF, American Red Cross, and Child's Play. A new section for eBooks, audiobooks and digital comics launched alongside the games store on May 15, 2014. As of May 2016, the Humble Store has raised over four million dollars for the various charities it supports.
In January 2019, the Humble Store added support for various Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS games. Humble has also partnered with Epic Games to sell redeemable keys for games on the Epic Games Store.
Humble Weekly Bundles
Following the conclusion of the Humble Android Bundle 5 in March 2013, the site announced new weekly sales that feature the same pay-what-you-want for a single title, starting with the game Bastion. As with the regular bundles, each weekly sale has several tiered payment options. Aside from only lasting one week instead of two, running consecutively with main bundles, and being based on a singular theme (often a particular developer's games), the sales work exactly like the bundles.
Humble Flash Bundles
Another extension of Humble Bundles, the first Flash Bundle debuted on July 14, 2014. Taking cues from the two week "Humble Daily Bundle" promotion, Humble Flash Bundles are similar to Weekly Sales, but only last for 24 hours and may include repeats of previous bundles and sales.
These can appear anywhere between as often as once a week to once a month.
Humble Monthly and Humble Choice
In October 2015, Humble Bundle launched its Humble Monthly subscription service; those that subscribed would receive a curated set of games at the start of each month, delivered in a similar manner as other Humble products (such as with Steam key redemption or DRM-free copies). Five percent of the subscription fees go to charity. Bowling compared the idea to a book club, allowing them to curate the monthly bundles on themes or complementary ideas. Bowling also stated that this can be a larger incentive towards developers into participating in this program since revenue for games can be better estimated based on the number of subscribers compared to their normal "pay what you want" pricing scheme.
Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham stated that while initial subscription numbers were low due to potential subscribers being unaware of what type of games were offered, that by February 2016, they have reached more than 70,000 subscribers to the service. At this level, Humble Bundle is able to use some of the money to fund the development of new games, "Humble Originals", for those subscribers in future Humble Monthlies; the first such "Humble Original" was Elephant in the Room developed by Mighty Rabbit Studios, released with the February 2016 Monthly bundle.
Starting in June 2017, those that maintained their monthly subscription also gained access to the Humble Trove, a library of DRM-free games that will expand over time, alongside the games offered through the Monthly bundles.
Humble transitioned the Monthly subscription service to Humble Choice in December 2019. While features such as access to the Humble Trove and discounts on the store remain the same, the Choice service offers at least ten games a month, and which Choice subscribers can choose a number to keep, based on their subscription tiers. A premium tier allows subscribers to keep 9 of the games, while the basic tier allows for 3. Existing Monthly subscribers were automatically transitioned to the premium tier (with the ability to keep 10 games), but at the existing Monthly subscription rate which they keep as long as they maintain their subscription. Additionally, Humble added a lower-cost tier that gives access to the Trove but no other free games.
Another change to the Choice plan was made in January 2022, keeping the subscription to a single price that would make available all games offered that month, though the number of games that are offered may change from month to month. Those on the premiere tier further have access to a rotating library of games accessible through a new app for Windows computers. However, due to this shift, Humble would no longer be able to support Mac or Linux versions of the Trove games since the launcher would be required to access them. With the change to the Trove, the discounts on the store also updated to a cumulative form, existing subscribers receiving the maximum level.
