How much revenue did Chessarama make?

$19k–$50k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Chessarama sell?

Q: How many copies did Chessarama sell?

5k to 7k copies, based on its 182 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 5k–7k; $19k–$50k after Steam's cut $34k–$77k before Steam's cut; from 182 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 Chessarama and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Chessarama's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.8M–5.0M

best case 13.0M (Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition)

Games like Chessarama

A typical game among these

≈ 1.8M–5.0M copies

≈ $8.8M–$25.2M after Steam's cut

from ~55k 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 First-Person (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: Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition at ≈ 9.9M–16.1M copies, ≈ $13.6M–$36.5M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 31k reviews in their first month; the range was 12k to 38k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share First-Person (3 of 8) and Co-op (2 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Tower Defense + Zombies, priced around $5.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2009 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
Ultimate Chicken Horse 2016	Est. copies ≈ 2.2M–3.6M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.2M–$24.8M after Steam's cut $16.8M–$38.1M before Steam's cut	$14.99	54k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MultiplayerParty
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition 2009	Est. copies ≈ 9.9M–16.1M 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $13.6M–$36.5M after Steam's cut $24.7M–$56.1M before Steam's cut	$4.99	156k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Tower DefenseZombies
Teardown 2022	Est. copies ≈ 3.4M–5.5M 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $27.9M–$75.0M after Steam's cut $50.7M–$115.4M before Steam's cut	$29.99	136k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DestructionPhysics
Liar's Bar 2024	Est. copies ≈ 1.4M–2.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $2.7M–$7.2M after Steam's cut $4.9M–$11.1M before Steam's cut	$6.99	56k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerCasual
SUPERHOT 2016	Est. copies ≈ 1.7M–2.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $11.7M–$31.4M after Steam's cut $21.2M–$48.2M before Steam's cut	$24.99	41k reviews Very Positive	ActionFPS
Besiege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 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
Papers, Please 2013	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $14.0M–$37.6M after Steam's cut $25.5M–$57.9M before Steam's cut	$9.99	81k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	IndiePolitical
Pacify 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.2M–2.0M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $1.7M–$4.5M after Steam's cut $3.1M–$7.0M before Steam's cut	$4.99	43k reviews Very Positive	HorrorOnline Co-Op