How much revenue did The Use of Life make?

$113k–$305k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did The Use of Life sell?

Q: How many copies did The Use of Life sell?

21k to 34k copies, based on its 832 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 21k–34k; $113k–$305k after Steam's cut $206k–$469k before Steam's cut; from 832 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 Use of Life and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including The Use of Life's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 66k–109k

best case 1.6M (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader)

Games like The Use of Life

A typical game among these

≈ 66k–109k copies

≈ $489k–$965k 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.

All 8 of the similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Choices Matter (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: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader at ≈ 1.2M–2.0M copies, ≈ $16.5M–$44.4M 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 1k reviews in their first month; the range was 473 to 10k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Choices Matter (3 of 8) and Dark Fantasy (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Action RPG + Third Person, priced around $20. The breakout hits carry Singleplayer; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 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 61 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
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition 2021	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M 21x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.3M after Steam's cut $11.0M–$25.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	44k reviews Very Positive	SingleplayerAction RPG
Vagrus - The Riven Realms 2021	Est. copies ≈ 47k–76k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $386k–$1.0M after Steam's cut $702k–$1.6M before Steam's cut	$29.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Story RichOpen World
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1.2M–2.0M 22x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $16.5M–$44.4M after Steam's cut $30.0M–$68.3M before Steam's cut	$49.99	48k reviews Very Positive	Character CustomizationCinematic
Cultist Simulator 2018	Est. copies ≈ 433k–704k 6.6x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.4M–$6.4M after Steam's cut $4.3M–$9.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	14k reviews Mostly Positive	SimulationChoices Matter
Shadows Over Loathing 2022	Est. copies ≈ 83k–134k 1.5x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $523k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $951k–$2.2M before Steam's cut	$22.99	3k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AdventureRPG
Crisis in the Kremlin 2017	Est. copies ≈ 50k–82k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $69k–$186k after Steam's cut $126k–$286k before Steam's cut	$4.99	1k reviews Very Positive	Political SimStrategy
The Nameless: Slay Dragon 2024	Est. copies ≈ 54k–87k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $265k–$713k after Steam's cut $482k–$1.1M before Steam's cut	$17.99	2k reviews Very Positive	RPGAdventure
The Age of Decadence 2015	Est. copies ≈ 198k–322k 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $818k–$2.2M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Turn-Based CombatChoices Matter