How much revenue did Heart of the Machine make?

$437k–$1.2M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Heart of the Machine sell?

Q: How many copies did Heart of the Machine sell?

53k to 86k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 53k–86k; $437k–$1.2M after Steam's cut $795k–$1.8M before Steam's cut; from 2k 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 Heart of the Machine and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Heart of the Machine's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.8M–10.8M

best case 20.7M (Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI)

Games like Heart of the Machine

A typical game among these

≈ 1.8M–10.8M copies

≈ $39.6M–$209.5M after Steam's cut

from ~114k 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: Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI at ≈ 15.8M–25.7M copies, ≈ $260.5M–$700.4M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 22k reviews in their first month; the range was 12k to 44k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Grand Strategy (8 of 8) and Historical (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Turn-Based Strategy + Historical, priced around $60.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2025, 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 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
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI 2016	Est. copies ≈ 15.8M–25.7M 3.3x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $260.5M–$700.4M after Steam's cut $473.7M–$1077.6M before Steam's cut	$59.99	380k reviews Very Positive	StrategyTurn-Based Strategy
Manor Lords 2024	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $25.3M–$68.1M after Steam's cut $46.1M–$104.8M before Steam's cut	$39.99	93k reviews Very Positive	StrategyCity Builder
Crusader Kings III 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.5M–5.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $48.6M–$130.7M after Steam's cut $88.4M–$201.1M before Steam's cut	$49.99	143k reviews Very Positive	StrategyMedieval
Sid Meier's Civilization VII 2025	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $29.7M–$79.9M after Steam's cut $54.1M–$123.0M before Steam's cut	$69.99	62k reviews Mixed	Grand StrategyHistorical
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic 2024	Est. copies ≈ 682k–1.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $7.5M–$20.2M after Steam's cut $13.6M–$31.0M before Steam's cut	$39.99	27k reviews Very Positive	StrategySimulation
Europa Universalis IV 2013	Est. copies ≈ 8.5M–13.8M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $116.6M–$313.5M after Steam's cut $212.0M–$482.3M before Steam's cut	$49.99	134k reviews Very Positive	Grand StrategyStrategy
HUMANKIND™ 2021	Est. copies ≈ 715k–1.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.8M–$26.4M after Steam's cut $17.9M–$40.7M before Steam's cut	$49.99	29k reviews Mixed	StrategyTurn-Based Strategy
Stellaris 2016	Est. copies ≈ 8.2M–13.3M 1.7x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $112.6M–$302.6M after Steam's cut $204.7M–$465.6M before Steam's cut	$49.99	197k reviews Very Positive	SpaceGrand Strategy