How much revenue did StarVaders make?

$751k–$2.0M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did StarVaders sell?

Q: How many copies did StarVaders sell?

109k to 178k copies, based on its 4k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 109k–178k; $751k–$2.0M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.1M before Steam's cut; from 4k 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 StarVaders and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including StarVaders's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.3M–3.8M

best case 6.0M (XCOM® 2)

Games like StarVaders

A typical game among these

≈ 1.3M–3.8M copies

≈ $6.9M–$28.2M after Steam's cut

from ~52k 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 Tactical (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: XCOM® 2 at ≈ 4.6M–7.4M copies, ≈ $25.1M–$67.5M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 10k reviews in their first month; the range was 975 to 33k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Tactical (4 of 8) and Turn-Based Tactics (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Isometric + Turn-Based Combat, priced around $20.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 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 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
XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2012	Est. copies ≈ 3.7M–6.0M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $15.3M–$41.1M after Steam's cut $27.8M–$63.3M before Steam's cut	$14.99	59k reviews Very Positive	Turn-Based StrategyTactical
Your Only Move Is HUSTLE 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.6M–$4.2M after Steam's cut $2.8M–$6.4M before Steam's cut	$4.99	46k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	2D FighterTurn-Based Strategy
XCOM® 2 2016	Est. copies ≈ 4.6M–7.4M 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $25.1M–$67.5M after Steam's cut $45.6M–$103.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	110k reviews Very Positive	IsometricTurn-Based Combat
Temtem 2022	Est. copies ≈ 975k–1.6M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $12.1M–$32.4M after Steam's cut $21.9M–$49.9M before Steam's cut	$44.99	39k reviews Very Positive	Co-opMultiplayer
Minion Masters 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.9M–3.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	65k reviews Very Positive	PvETrading Card Game
Loop Hero 2021	Est. copies ≈ 907k–1.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.7M–$10.1M after Steam's cut $6.8M–$15.5M before Steam's cut	$14.99	37k reviews Very Positive	TacticalRogue-like
Dota Underlords 2019	Est. copies ≈ 2.6M–4.3M 1.7x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue Free	Free	91k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayStrategy
RISK: Global Domination 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.0M–1.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	42k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayMultiplayer