How much revenue did Sanfu make?

$1.3M–$3.6M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Sanfu sell?

Q: How many copies did Sanfu sell?

443k to 720k copies, based on its 18k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 443k–720k; $1.3M–$3.6M after Steam's cut $2.4M–$5.5M before Steam's cut; from 18k 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 Sanfu and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Sanfu's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 763k–2.7M

best case 5.5M (Firewatch)

Games like Sanfu

A typical game among these

≈ 763k–2.7M copies

≈ $3.7M–$29.0M after Steam's cut

from ~43k 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: Firewatch at ≈ 4.2M–6.8M copies, ≈ $22.9M–$61.5M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 8k reviews in their first month; the range was 6k to 13k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Story Rich (6 of 8) and Exploration (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Story Rich + Walking Simulator, priced around $20.
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
Life is Strange 2 2018	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.0M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue Free	Free	41k reviews Very Positive	Choices MatterStory Rich
What Remains of Edith Finch 2017	Est. copies ≈ 1.8M–3.0M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $10.1M–$27.2M after Steam's cut $18.4M–$41.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	53k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Story RichAtmospheric
Firewatch 2016	Est. copies ≈ 4.2M–6.8M 2.3x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $22.9M–$61.5M after Steam's cut $41.6M–$94.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	100k reviews Very Positive	AdventureAtmospheric
SOMA 2015	Est. copies ≈ 2.6M–4.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.4M–$57.4M after Steam's cut $38.8M–$88.3M before Steam's cut	$29.99	53k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Horror Psychological Horror
We Were Here Together 2019	Est. copies ≈ 512k–831k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.9M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.6M before Steam's cut	$12.99	18k reviews Very Positive	PuzzleOnline Co-Op
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip 2023	Est. copies ≈ 599k–973k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $657k–$1.8M after Steam's cut $1.2M–$2.7M before Steam's cut	$3.99	24k reviews Very Positive	Co-op Puzzle
Murders on the Yangtze River 2024	Est. copies ≈ 528k–858k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.0M before Steam's cut	$14.99	21k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DetectiveAdventure
Firework 2021	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $3.0M–$8.1M after Steam's cut $5.5M–$12.5M before Steam's cut	$9.99	44k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	HorrorIndie