How much revenue did The Play's the Thing make?

$530–$1k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did The Play's the Thing sell?

Q: How many copies did The Play's the Thing sell?

322 to 524 copies, based on its 13 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 322–524; $530–$1k after Steam's cut $964–$2k before Steam's cut; from 13 reviews (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 Play's the Thing and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including The Play's the Thing's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 250k–398k

best case 2.1M (Emily is Away)

Games like The Play's the Thing

A typical game among these

≈ 250k–398k copies

≈ $980k–$2.6M after Steam's cut

from ~10k 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.

Best case: Emily is Away at ≈ 1.6M–2.6M copies.

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 448 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Interactive Fiction (7 of 8) and Choose Your Own Adventure (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Story Rich + Choices Matter.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2014 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 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
Emily is Away 2015	Est. copies ≈ 1.6M–2.6M 3.4x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	32k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayStory Rich
Roadwarden 2022	Est. copies ≈ 129k–210k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $390k–$1.0M after Steam's cut $709k–$1.6M before Steam's cut	$10.99	5k reviews Very Positive	RPGText-Based
Depression Quest 2014	Est. copies ≈ 221k–359k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Mixed	ShortIndie
No Case Should Remain Unsolved 2024	Est. copies ≈ 266k–433k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $512k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $930k–$2.1M before Steam's cut	$6.99	11k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Interactive FictionPuzzle
Homicipher 2024	Est. copies ≈ 207k–336k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $796k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$13.99	8k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	HorrorOtome
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante 2021	Est. copies ≈ 326k–529k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.8M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.4M before Steam's cut	$19.99	13k reviews Very Positive	Choices MatterStory Rich
Suzerain 2020	Est. copies ≈ 296k–481k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.6M–$4.4M after Steam's cut $3.0M–$6.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	12k reviews Very Positive	Visual NovelChoose Your Own Adventure
I Wani Hug that Gator! 2024	Est. copies ≈ 143k–232k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $589k–$1.6M after Steam's cut $1.1M–$2.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Visual Novel Story Rich