How much revenue did Iron Lung make?

$615k–$1.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Iron Lung sell?

Q: How many copies did Iron Lung sell?

280k to 455k copies, based on its 11k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 280k–455k; $615k–$1.7M after Steam's cut $1.1M–$2.5M before Steam's cut; from 11k 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 Iron Lung and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Iron Lung's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 15.3M–52.6M

best case 99.7M (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege)

Games like Iron Lung

A typical game among these

≈ 15.3M–52.6M copies

≈ $113.4M–$379.0M after Steam's cut

from ~724k 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 Co-op (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: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at ≈ 76.0M–123.4M copies.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Co-op (4 of 8) and Horror (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Tactical.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 to 2023, and none of them 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
SCP: Secret Laboratory 2017	Est. copies ≈ 8.1M–13.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue Free	Free	235k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayMultiplayer
Lethal Company 2023	Est. copies ≈ 12.7M–20.6M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $34.8M–$93.6M after Steam's cut $63.3M–$144.0M before Steam's cut	$9.99	511k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Online Co-OpHorror
DARK SOULS™ III 2016	Est. copies ≈ 18.3M–29.8M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $302.7M–$813.9M after Steam's cut $550.4M–$1252.2M before Steam's cut	$59.99	441k reviews Very Positive	Souls-likeDark Fantasy
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 2015	Est. copies ≈ 76.0M–123.4M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.6M reviews Very Positive	FPSPvP
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.5M–70.7M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $179.4M–$482.4M after Steam's cut $326.2M–$742.1M before Steam's cut	$14.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Farming SimPixel Graphics
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut $77.3M–$175.9M before Steam's cut	$4.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MatureUtilities
Ready or Not 2023	Est. copies ≈ 8.6M–14.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $118.4M–$318.4M after Steam's cut $215.3M–$489.8M before Steam's cut	$49.99	347k reviews Mostly Positive	TacticalRealistic
Dead by Daylight 2016	Est. copies ≈ 39.0M–63.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $214.2M–$575.9M after Steam's cut $389.4M–$886.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	937k reviews Mostly Positive	HorrorMultiplayer