How much revenue did Cartel Tycoon make?

$781k–$2.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Cartel Tycoon sell?

Q: How many copies did Cartel Tycoon sell?

95k to 154k copies, based on its 4k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 95k–154k; $781k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.2M before Steam's cut; from 4k 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 Cartel Tycoon and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Cartel Tycoon's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 336k–785k

best case 4.9M (Prison Architect)

Games like Cartel Tycoon

A typical game among these

≈ 336k–785k copies

≈ $2.0M–$9.5M after Steam's cut

from ~12k 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: Prison Architect at ≈ 3.8M–6.1M copies, ≈ $31.0M–$83.3M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 8k reviews in their first month; the range was 744 to 22k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share City Builder (5 of 8) and Sandbox (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Building, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2009 to 2025, and 3 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 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
Stronghold 2: Steam Edition 2017	Est. copies ≈ 199k–323k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $819k–$2.2M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	6k reviews Very Positive	City BuilderReal Time Tactics
Age of Mythology: Retold 2024	Est. copies ≈ 585k–951k 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.8M–$13.0M after Steam's cut $8.8M–$20.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	24k reviews Very Positive	Strategy3D
Farthest Frontier 2025	Est. copies ≈ 638k–1.0M 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.5M after Steam's cut $11.2M–$25.4M before Steam's cut	$34.99	26k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessHistorical
Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal 2014	Est. copies ≈ 271k–440k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.1M–$3.0M after Steam's cut $2.0M–$4.6M before Steam's cut	$14.99	5k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Tower DefenseStrategy
shapez 2020	Est. copies ≈ 396k–644k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.1M–$2.9M after Steam's cut $2.0M–$4.5M before Steam's cut	$9.99	16k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AutomationBase-Building
Prison Architect 2015	Est. copies ≈ 3.8M–6.1M 6.3x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $31.0M–$83.3M after Steam's cut $56.3M–$128.2M before Steam's cut	$29.99	77k reviews Very Positive	SimulationBuilding
The Wandering Village 2025	Est. copies ≈ 211k–342k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.7M–$4.7M after Steam's cut $3.2M–$7.2M before Steam's cut	$29.99	8k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessBuilding
The Stronghold Collection 2009	Est. copies ≈ 364k–592k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.5M–$6.7M after Steam's cut $4.6M–$10.4M before Steam's cut	$24.99	6k reviews Very Positive	City BuilderReal Time Tactics