How much revenue did The Chess Variants Club make?

$2k–$5k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did The Chess Variants Club sell?

Q: How many copies did The Chess Variants Club sell?

1k to 2k copies, based on its 55 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 1k–2k; $2k–$5k after Steam's cut $3k–$8k before Steam's cut; from 55 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 The Chess Variants Club and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including The Chess Variants Club's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 9k–15k

best case 243k (Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate)

Games like The Chess Variants Club

A typical game among these

≈ 9k–15k copies

≈ $38k–$90k after Steam's cut

from ~280 reviews

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

1 of the 8 similar games is a hit.

Best case: Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate at ≈ 185k–300k copies, ≈ $508k–$1.4M 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 196 reviews in their first month; the range was 105 to 977.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Chess (7 of 8) and Board Game (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Chess + Turn-Based Strategy, priced around $10. The breakout hits carry Action Roguelike + Arcade + Pixel Graphics; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2014 to 2025, and 2 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 70 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
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate 2022	Est. copies ≈ 185k–300k 27x 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
Feud 2024	Est. copies ≈ 6k–9k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue Free	Free	226 reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayIndie
Master of Chess 2025	Est. copies ≈ 7k–12k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $41k–$110k after Steam's cut $74k–$169k before Steam's cut	$19.99	299 reviews Very Positive	ChessTurn-Based Tactics
Khet 2.0 2014	Est. copies ≈ 9k–15k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $25k–$68k after Steam's cut $46k–$105k before Steam's cut	$9.99	165 reviews Very Positive	Asynchronous MultiplayerBoard Game
Dark Chess 2023	Est. copies ≈ 5k–9k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $19k–$51k after Steam's cut $34k–$78k before Steam's cut	$12.99	213 reviews Mostly Positive	ChessStrategy
Unlock The King 2019	Est. copies ≈ 12k–19k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $3k–$9k after Steam's cut $6k–$13k before Steam's cut	$0.99	404 reviews Very Positive	FuturisticSokoban
Pure Chess Grandmaster Edition 2016	Est. copies ≈ 12k–19k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $51k–$138k after Steam's cut $93k–$212k before Steam's cut	$15.99	280 reviews Mostly Positive	ChessStrategy
Pawnbarian 2021	Est. copies ≈ 22k–36k 3.2x vs typical SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $62k–$165k after Steam's cut $112k–$254k before Steam's cut	$9.99	903 reviews Very Positive	Rogue-likeTurn-Based Combat