How much revenue did Buoyancy make?

$85k–$230k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Buoyancy sell?

Q: How many copies did Buoyancy sell?

24k to 39k copies, based on its 831 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 24k–39k; $85k–$230k after Steam's cut $155k–$354k before Steam's cut; from 831 reviews (Mixed)

Copies are estimated from the public review count, adjusted for release year, and cross-checked against SteamSpy's own estimate.

Did the prediction match what actually happened?

We hid Buoyancy and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Buoyancy's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 517k–1.3M

best case 1.9M (They Are Billions)

Games like Buoyancy

A typical game among these

≈ 517k–1.3M copies

≈ $3.5M–$9.9M after Steam's cut

from ~19k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

All 8 of the similar games are hits.

Best case: They Are Billions at ≈ 1.5M–2.4M copies, ≈ $12.2M–$32.9M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 6k reviews in their first month; the range was 1k to 16k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Base-Building (8 of 8) and City Builder (8 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Base-Building + Colony Sim, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2022, and none of them shipped in the last two years.

How these numbers were worked out

A hit here: 1,000+ reviews, roughly $150k+ before Steam's cut (a standard indie benchmark).

Copies come from each game's reviews times a sales-per-review rate that falls with release age, from about 31 for the most recent game here to about 79 for the oldest, then widened into a range; revenue rides on that estimate times price. Source: GameDiscoverCo (2020) and VG Insights (2021).

Similar games

Game	Est. copies	Est. revenue	Price	Reviews	Tags
They Are Billions 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 2.6x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $12.2M–$32.9M after Steam's cut $22.2M–$50.6M before Steam's cut	$29.99	52k reviews Very Positive	Base-BuildingColony Sim
Dwarf Fortress 2022	Est. copies ≈ 783k–1.3M 1.6x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	32k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Stronghold Crusader HD (2012) 2013	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.7M–$9.9M after Steam's cut $6.7M–$15.2M before Steam's cut	$9.99	21k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MilitaryCity Builder
Planetbase 2015	Est. copies ≈ 511k–830k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $2.1M–$5.7M after Steam's cut $3.8M–$8.7M before Steam's cut	$14.99	10k reviews Mostly Positive	Colony Sim City Builder
Kingdoms Reborn 2020	Est. copies ≈ 242k–393k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.3M–$3.6M after Steam's cut $2.4M–$5.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	10k reviews Very Positive	City BuilderBase-Building
Endzone - A World Apart 2021	Est. copies ≈ 249k–405k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.7M–$4.6M after Steam's cut $3.1M–$7.1M before Steam's cut	$24.99	10k reviews Mostly Positive	City Builder Survival
IXION 2022	Est. copies ≈ 443k–719k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $4.3M–$11.4M after Steam's cut $7.7M–$17.6M before Steam's cut	$34.99	18k reviews Mostly Positive	SpaceCity Builder
Surviving Mars 2018	Est. copies ≈ 889k–1.4M 1.5x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	29k reviews Mostly Positive	Colony Sim City Builder