How much revenue did Dark Chess make?

$19k–$51k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Dark Chess sell?

Q: How many copies did Dark Chess sell?

5k to 9k copies, based on its 213 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 5k–9k; $19k–$51k after Steam's cut $34k–$78k before Steam's cut; from 213 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 Dark Chess and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Dark Chess's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 113k–238k

best case 1.4M (FPS Chess)

Games like Dark Chess

A typical game among these

≈ 113k–238k copies

≈ $834k–$1.5M after Steam's cut

from ~3k 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: FPS Chess at ≈ 1.1M–1.8M copies. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 977 reviews in their first month; the range was 835 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Chess (5 of 8) and Board Game (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Shooter. The breakout hits carry FPS + PvP + Shooter; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 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
Chess Ultra 2017	Est. copies ≈ 80k–130k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $285k–$766k after Steam's cut $518k–$1.2M before Steam's cut	$12.99	2k reviews Mostly Positive	StrategyChess
FPS Chess 2022	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M 17x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	44k reviews Very Positive	FPSPvP
Prismata 2018	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessStrategy
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate 2022	Est. copies ≈ 185k–300k 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $508k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $923k–$2.1M before Steam's cut	$9.99	7k reviews Very Positive	ChessTurn-Based Strategy
5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel 2020	Est. copies ≈ 223k–362k 3.4x vs typical SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $735k–$2.0M after Steam's cut $1.3M–$3.0M before Steam's cut	$11.99	9k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ChessTime Travel
Simply Chess 2015	Est. copies ≈ 178k–289k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Mostly Positive	ChessBoard Game
Frozen Synapse 2011	Est. copies ≈ 165k–269k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.1M–$3.1M after Steam's cut $2.1M–$4.7M before Steam's cut	$24.99	3k reviews Very Positive	StrategyTurn-Based
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide 2015	Est. copies ≈ 93k–151k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue Free	Free	2k reviews Mixed	Warhammer 40KStrategy