How many copies did RetroArch sell?

244k to 397k copies, based on its 10k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

How much revenue did RetroArch make?

RetroArch is free to play, so there is no copy-sales revenue to estimate.

How big is RetroArch?

Estimated players who have it: ≈ 244k–397k; from 10k reviews (Very 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 RetroArch and predicted how it would do from its 5 similar games. Every figure here, including RetroArch's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.7M–3.3M

best case 40.7M (Wallpaper Engine)

Games like RetroArch

A typical game among these

≈ 1.7M–3.3M copies

≈ $10.3M–$15.7M after Steam's cut

from ~63k 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 5 of the similar games are hits.

Best case: Wallpaper Engine at ≈ 31.0M–50.3M copies, ≈ $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Software (4 of 5) and Utilities (4 of 5).
The winners: Winners here lead with Mature + Utilities, priced around $5. The breakout hits carry Anime + First-Person + Mature; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: None of the similar games shipped in the last two years; the newest is from 2018. 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 38 for the most recent game here to about 52 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
Aseprite 2016	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.2M–$16.6M after Steam's cut $11.2M–$25.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	27k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Pixel GraphicsDesign & Illustration
Soundpad 2017	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.9M 1.7x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $4.9M–$13.3M after Steam's cut $9.0M–$20.5M before Steam's cut	$4.99	105k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	UtilitiesAudio Production
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M 16x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut $77.3M–$175.9M before Steam's cut	$4.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MatureUtilities
SteamVR unreleased	Est. copies ≈ 2.2M–3.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	87k reviews Very Positive	VRSoftware
Rivals of Aether 2017	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.8M–$29.2M after Steam's cut $19.7M–$44.9M before Steam's cut	$29.99	38k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Fighting2D Fighter