How much revenue did Primate Signal make?

$512–$1k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Primate Signal sell?

Q: How many copies did Primate Signal sell?

372 to 605 copies, based on its 15 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 372–605; $512–$1k after Steam's cut $930–$2k before Steam's cut; from 15 reviews (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 Primate Signal and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Primate Signal's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 33k–62k

best case 412k (Coffee Talk)

Games like Primate Signal

A typical game among these

≈ 33k–62k copies

≈ $68k–$158k after Steam's cut

from ~1k reviews

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

3 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Coffee Talk at ≈ 314k–510k copies, ≈ $1.1M–$3.0M after Steam's cut. 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 132 reviews in their first month; the range was 67 to 621.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Visual Novel (8 of 8) and Philosophical (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Conversation + Visual Novel, priced around $13. The breakout hits carry Pixel Graphics + Relaxing + Story Rich; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2017 to 2024, and 1 of the 8 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 43 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
Far from Noise 2017	Est. copies ≈ 7k–11k too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $15k–$41k after Steam's cut $28k–$63k before Steam's cut	$7.99	202 reviews Very Positive	ConversationNarrative
DIVINATION 2019	Est. copies ≈ 6k–10k too small to compare SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $3k–$9k after Steam's cut $6k–$14k before Steam's cut	$1.99	209 reviews Very Positive	Visual NovelCyberpunk
Locke(d) 2023	Est. copies ≈ 28k–45k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue Free	Free	1k reviews Very Positive	PhilosophicalConversation
Subsurface Circular 2017	Est. copies ≈ 67k–108k 1.7x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $110k–$295k after Steam's cut $200k–$454k before Steam's cut	$5.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Visual NovelInvestigation
Coffee Talk 2020	Est. copies ≈ 314k–510k 11x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.1M–$3.0M after Steam's cut $2.0M–$4.6M before Steam's cut	$12.99	13k reviews Very Positive	ConversationPixel Graphics
Pro Philosopher 2: Governments & Grievances 2024	Est. copies ≈ 5k–9k too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $17k–$47k after Steam's cut $32k–$72k before Steam's cut	$11.99	212 reviews Very Positive	AdventureEducation
Deluge: Threnody of Crashing Waves 2022	Est. copies ≈ 6k–11k too small to compare SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue Free	Free	262 reviews Very Positive	Visual NovelAnime
HOPE LEFT ME 2023	Est. copies ≈ 23k–38k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $13k–$34k after Steam's cut $23k–$52k before Steam's cut	$1.99	934 reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Visual NovelAtmospheric