How much revenue did PhotoWorld make?

$1k–$4k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did PhotoWorld sell?

Q: How many copies did PhotoWorld sell?

521 to 846 copies, based on its 21 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 521–846; $1k–$4k after Steam's cut $3k–$6k before Steam's cut; from 21 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 PhotoWorld and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including PhotoWorld's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 32k–103k

best case 238k (35MM)

Games like PhotoWorld

A typical game among these

≈ 32k–103k copies

≈ $261k–$585k after Steam's cut

from ~2k reviews

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

5 of the 8 similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Open World (4 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: 35MM at ≈ 181k–295k copies, ≈ $448k–$1.2M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 410 reviews in their first month; the range was 19 to 1k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (4 of 8) and Exploration (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Walking Simulator, priced around $9.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2016 to 2024, 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 52 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
灵墟 2023	Est. copies ≈ 25k–40k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $75k–$200k after Steam's cut $135k–$308k before Steam's cut	$10.99	994 reviews Very Positive	IndieExploration
IMMORTALITY 2022	Est. copies ≈ 50k–81k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $274k–$736k after Steam's cut $497k–$1.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Hidden ObjectChoose Your Own Adventure
The Witch of Fern Island 2024	Est. copies ≈ 23k–37k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $157k–$422k after Steam's cut $286k–$650k before Steam's cut	$24.99	922 reviews Mixed	AdventureLife Sim
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley 2024	Est. copies ≈ 107k–174k 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $973k–$2.6M after Steam's cut $1.8M–$4.0M before Steam's cut	$32.99	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ColorfulPuzzle
35MM 2016	Est. copies ≈ 181k–295k 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $448k–$1.2M after Steam's cut $815k–$1.9M before Steam's cut	$8.99	4k reviews Mostly Positive	FPS Walking Simulator
Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography 2024	Est. copies ≈ 20k–33k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $112k–$302k after Steam's cut $204k–$465k before Steam's cut	$19.99	825 reviews Very Positive	EducationImmersive Sim
Taiji 2022	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $254k–$682k after Steam's cut $461k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	1k reviews Very Positive	PuzzleNonlinear
PANELKI 2022	Est. copies ≈ 69k–112k 1.6x vs typical SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $151k–$406k after Steam's cut $274k–$624k before Steam's cut	$7.99	3k reviews Very Positive	SnowAtmospheric