How much revenue did Need for Speed™ Payback make?

$6.6M–$17.9M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Need for Speed™ Payback sell?

Q: How many copies did Need for Speed™ Payback sell?

806k to 1.3M copies, based on its 32k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 806k–1.3M; $6.6M–$17.9M after Steam's cut $12.1M–$27.5M before Steam's cut; from 32k 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 Need for Speed™ Payback and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Need for Speed™ Payback's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 455k–1.2M

best case 5.0M (Need for Speed™ Heat)

Games like Need for Speed™ Payback

A typical game among these

≈ 455k–1.2M copies

≈ $5.1M–$21.8M after Steam's cut

from ~22k 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: Need for Speed™ Heat at ≈ 3.8M–6.2M copies, ≈ $73.7M–$198.2M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 2k reviews in their first month; the range was 734 to 13k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Racing (8 of 8) and Driving (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Racing + Open World, priced around $70.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2025, 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 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
Need for Speed™ Heat 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.8M–6.2M 7.0x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $73.7M–$198.2M after Steam's cut $134.0M–$304.9M before Steam's cut	$69.99	154k reviews Very Positive	RacingOpen World
Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered 2020	Est. copies ≈ 376k–610k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.1M–$8.3M after Steam's cut $5.6M–$12.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	15k reviews Very Positive	RacingDriving
Need for Speed™ Most Wanted 2020	Est. copies ≈ 699k–1.1M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.8M–$10.3M after Steam's cut $7.0M–$15.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	28k reviews Mostly Positive	RacingMultiplayer
Need for Speed™ Unbound 2022	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $29.0M–$77.9M after Steam's cut $52.7M–$119.8M before Steam's cut	$69.99	61k reviews Mixed	RacingMultiplayer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2025	Est. copies ≈ 392k–637k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $5.4M–$14.5M after Steam's cut $9.8M–$22.3M before Steam's cut	$49.99	16k reviews Very Positive	RacingDriving
Gas Guzzlers Extreme 2013	Est. copies ≈ 261k–424k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.8M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.4M before Steam's cut	$24.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Combat RacingVehicular Combat
Need for Speed™ 2020	Est. copies ≈ 737k–1.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.4M after Steam's cut $11.1M–$25.2M before Steam's cut	$29.99	30k reviews Mixed	RacingMultiplayer
Burnout™ Paradise Remastered 2020	Est. copies ≈ 214k–348k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.2M–$3.2M after Steam's cut $2.1M–$4.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	9k reviews Mixed	RacingAction