How much revenue did California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) make?

$2k–$4k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) sell?

Q: How many copies did California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) sell?

570 to 927 copies, based on its 23 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 570–927; $2k–$4k after Steam's cut $3k–$6k before Steam's cut; from 23 reviews (Mixed)

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 California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis)'s, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 134k–278k

best case 863k (Punch Club)

Games like California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis)

A typical game among these

≈ 134k–278k copies

≈ $318k–$1.7M after Steam's cut

from ~4k 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.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Arcade (3 of 8), so its genre is hard to place.

Of the 416 indie games that passed 1,000 reviews in 2022, 11.8% were novel genre mixes and 88.2% stuck to an established genre. Published indie market research.

Best case: Punch Club at ≈ 658k–1.1M copies, ≈ $1.8M–$4.9M 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 838 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Arcade (3 of 8) and Platformer (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Management + Time Management, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 to 2024, 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 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
Out There Somewhere 2016	Est. copies ≈ 288k–468k 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $791k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$9.99	7k reviews Very Positive	PlatformerPixel Graphics
UFO 50 2024	Est. copies ≈ 186k–303k 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $1.3M–$3.4M after Steam's cut $2.3M–$5.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	8k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	IndiePixel Graphics
Punch Club 2016	Est. copies ≈ 658k–1.1M 4.4x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.9M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.5M before Steam's cut	$9.99	16k reviews Very Positive	ManagementPixel Graphics
Backyard Baseball '97 2024	Est. copies ≈ 57k–92k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $156k–$420k after Steam's cut $284k–$647k before Steam's cut	$9.99	2k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SportsCasual
Castlevania Anniversary Collection 2019	Est. copies ≈ 67k–108k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $366k–$985k after Steam's cut $666k–$1.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	ActionAdventure
Waveform 2012	Est. copies ≈ 135k–220k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $74k–$199k after Steam's cut $134k–$306k before Steam's cut	$1.99	2k reviews Very Positive	IndiePuzzle
Punch Club 2: Fast Forward 2023	Est. copies ≈ 114k–186k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $628k–$1.7M after Steam's cut $1.1M–$2.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	5k reviews Very Positive	Time ManagementPixel Graphics
Airscape - The Fall of Gravity 2015	Est. copies ≈ 130k–210k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $178k–$478k after Steam's cut $323k–$735k before Steam's cut	$4.99	3k reviews Very Positive	Shoot 'Em UpExploration