How much revenue did Zen Chess: Mate in Three make?

$596–$2k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Zen Chess: Mate in Three sell?

Q: How many copies did Zen Chess: Mate in Three sell?

2k to 4k copies, based on its 76 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2k–4k; $596–$2k after Steam's cut $1k–$2k before Steam's cut; from 76 reviews (Mostly Positive)

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 Zen Chess: Mate in Three and predicted how it would do from its 4 similar games. Every figure here, including Zen Chess: Mate in Three's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 3k–8k

best case 19k (Zen Chess: Mate in One)

Games like Zen Chess: Mate in Three

A typical game among these

≈ 3k–8k copies

≈ $2k–$3k after Steam's cut

from ~102 reviews

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

None of the 4 similar games are hits.

This comes from a small set of games, so take it as a sketch.

Best case: Zen Chess: Mate in One at ≈ 14k–23k copies, ≈ $4k–$10k after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Chess (4 of 4) and Education (4 of 4).
The winners: Winners here lead with Chess + Puzzle, priced around $1.
When they shipped: None of the similar games shipped in the last two years; the newest is from 2023. That says more about which games were found than about the market.

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 38 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
Zen Chess: Mate in Two 2019	Est. copies ≈ 4k–6k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $1k–$3k after Steam's cut $2k–$4k before Steam's cut	$0.99	129 reviews Very Positive	ChessMinimalist
Stress Chess 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1k–2k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $1k–$3k after Steam's cut $2k–$5k before Steam's cut	$2.99	55 reviews Mostly Positive	ChessEducation
Zen Chess: Mate in Four 2019	Est. copies ≈ 2k–4k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $588–$2k after Steam's cut $1k–$2k before Steam's cut	$0.99	75 reviews Mixed	ChessMinimalist
Zen Chess: Mate in One 2018	Est. copies ≈ 14k–23k 4.6x vs typical SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $4k–$10k after Steam's cut $7k–$16k before Steam's cut	$0.99	465 reviews Very Positive	ChessMinimalist