How much revenue did Waves of Steel make?

$59k–$158k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Waves of Steel sell?

Q: How many copies did Waves of Steel sell?

11k to 17k copies, based on its 430 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 11k–17k; $59k–$158k after Steam's cut $107k–$242k before Steam's cut; from 430 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 Waves of Steel and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Waves of Steel's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 772k–3.1M

best case 65.2M (War Thunder)

Games like Waves of Steel

A typical game among these

≈ 772k–3.1M copies

≈ $4.9M–$10.2M after Steam's cut

from ~28k 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 Simulation (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: War Thunder at ≈ 49.7M–80.7M copies.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 13k reviews in their first month; the range was 7k to 31k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Simulation (4 of 8) and War (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Vehicular Combat.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2024, 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
UBOAT 2024	Est. copies ≈ 678k–1.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.6M–$15.0M after Steam's cut $10.2M–$23.1M before Steam's cut	$29.99	27k reviews Very Positive	SimulationWorld War II
Holdfast: Nations At War 2020	Est. copies ≈ 734k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.0M–$10.8M after Steam's cut $7.3M–$16.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	30k reviews Very Positive	ShooterFPS
From the Depths 2020	Est. copies ≈ 319k–518k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.1M before Steam's cut	$24.99	13k reviews Very Positive	BuildingNaval Combat
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 318k–517k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.7M after Steam's cut $3.2M–$7.2M before Steam's cut	$19.99	11k reviews Mostly Positive	SpaceStrategy
Besiege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $5.5M–$14.7M after Steam's cut $9.9M–$22.6M before Steam's cut	$14.99	53k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationSandbox
World of Warships 2017	Est. copies ≈ 5.4M–8.8M 5.5x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	157k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayNaval Combat
VTOL VR 2017	Est. copies ≈ 752k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.2M–$16.7M after Steam's cut $11.3M–$25.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FlightVR
War Thunder 2013	Est. copies ≈ 49.7M–80.7M 28x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	786k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlaySimulation