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How many copies did To the Moon sell?

Estimated copies sold
≈ 5.5M–8.9M
$15.0M–$40.4M after Steam's cut $27.3M–$62.2M before Steam's cut
from 87k reviews (Overwhelmingly 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 To the Moon and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including To the Moon's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 10.3M–26.0M
best case 40.7M (Wallpaper Engine)
Games like To the Moon

A typical game among these

≈ 10.3M–26.0M copies

≈ $88.1M–$158.5M after Steam's cut

from ~327k 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 Story Rich (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: Wallpaper Engine at ≈ 31.0M–50.3M copies, ≈ $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering
These games
The similar games share Story Rich (3 of 8) and Anime (2 of 8).
The winners
Winners here lead with Mature + Utilities, priced around $5.
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 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

Doki Doki Literature Club!
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Est. copies
≈ 7.9M–12.8M
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
Free
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The Forest
2018
Est. copies
≈ 20.8M–33.7M
2.1x vs typical
SteamSpy 20M–50M
Est. revenue
$114.2M–$306.9M after Steam's cut $207.5M–$472.2M before Steam's cut
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Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition
2017
Est. copies
≈ 7.1M–11.5M
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
$87.8M–$236.1M after Steam's cut $159.6M–$363.2M before Steam's cut
$44.99
206k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Tactical RPGRPG
Hades
2020
Est. copies
≈ 7.7M–12.5M
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
$52.9M–$142.2M after Steam's cut $96.1M–$218.7M before Steam's cut
$24.99
310k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Action RoguelikeRogue-lite
Undertale
2015
Est. copies
≈ 16.8M–27.2M
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
$46.0M–$123.8M after Steam's cut $83.7M–$190.4M before Steam's cut
$9.99
343k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Great SoundtrackStory Rich
Hollow Knight
2017
Est. copies
≈ 19.5M–31.6M
1.7x 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
Life is Strange - Episode 1
2015
Est. copies
≈ 8.6M–14.0M
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
Free
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176k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Story RichChoices Matter
Wallpaper Engine
2018
Est. copies
≈ 31.0M–50.3M
3.1x vs typical
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

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