How much revenue did Aquatico make?

$148k–$399k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Aquatico sell?

Q: How many copies did Aquatico sell?

22k to 35k copies, based on its 871 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 22k–35k; $148k–$399k after Steam's cut $270k–$614k before Steam's cut; from 871 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 Aquatico and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Aquatico's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.1M–2.6M

best case 5.5M (Frostpunk)

Games like Aquatico

A typical game among these

≈ 1.1M–2.6M copies

≈ $11.2M–$24.1M after Steam's cut

from ~32k 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: Frostpunk at ≈ 4.2M–6.8M copies, ≈ $34.5M–$92.8M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share City Builder (8 of 8) and Colony Sim (8 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with City Builder + Survival, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2014 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 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
Dwarf Fortress 2022	Est. copies ≈ 783k–1.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	32k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Banished 2014	Est. copies ≈ 2.4M–3.9M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $13.3M–$35.9M after Steam's cut $24.3M–$55.2M before Steam's cut	$19.99	43k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Colony Sim
Kingdoms and Castles 2017	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.0M–$16.0M after Steam's cut $10.8M–$24.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	32k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Colony Sim
They Are Billions 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 1.6x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $12.2M–$32.9M after Steam's cut $22.2M–$50.6M before Steam's cut	$29.99	52k reviews Very Positive	Base-BuildingColony Sim
Surviving Mars 2018	Est. copies ≈ 889k–1.4M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	29k reviews Mostly Positive	Colony Sim City Builder
Surviving the Abyss 2024	Est. copies ≈ 27k–44k too small to compare SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $148k–$397k after Steam's cut $268k–$611k before Steam's cut	$19.99	1k reviews Mixed	City Builder Colony Sim
Frostpunk 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.2M–6.8M 4.4x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $34.5M–$92.8M after Steam's cut $62.8M–$142.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	138k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Survival
Dawn of Man 2019	Est. copies ≈ 514k–836k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.5M–$9.5M after Steam's cut $6.4M–$14.6M before Steam's cut	$24.99	18k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Colony Sim