How much revenue did Cave Story+ make?

$2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Cave Story+ sell?

Q: How many copies did Cave Story+ sell?

528k to 858k copies, based on its 8k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 528k–858k; $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.0M before Steam's cut; from 8k 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 Cave Story+ and predicted how it would do from its 4 similar games. Every figure here, including Cave Story+'s, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 4.1M–10.0M

best case 25.6M (Hollow Knight)

Games like Cave Story+

A typical game among these

≈ 4.1M–10.0M copies

≈ $37.7M–$78.5M after Steam's cut

from ~111k 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 4 of the similar games are hits.

This comes from a small set of games, so take it as a sketch.

Best case: Hollow Knight at ≈ 19.5M–31.6M copies, ≈ $80.3M–$215.8M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Metroidvania (3 of 4) and Platformer (3 of 4).
The winners: Winners here lead with Metroidvania + Souls-like, priced around $15.
When they shipped: None of the similar games shipped in the last two years; the newest is from 2020. That says more about which games were found than about the market.

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 52 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
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition 2016	Est. copies ≈ 3.0M–4.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $16.4M–$44.1M after Steam's cut $29.8M–$67.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	72k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AtmosphericGreat Soundtrack
Ori and the Will of the Wisps 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.9M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $30.0M–$80.6M after Steam's cut $54.5M–$124.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	147k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	BeautifulMetroidvania
INSIDE 2016	Est. copies ≈ 3.2M–5.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.8M–$58.7M after Steam's cut $39.7M–$90.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	76k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	2.5DPuzzle-Platformer
Hollow Knight 2017	Est. copies ≈ 19.5M–31.6M 5.1x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $80.3M–$215.8M after Steam's cut $145.9M–$332.0M before Steam's cut	$14.99	566k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Metroidvania Souls-like