How much revenue did Nuclear Option make?

$1.5M–$4.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Nuclear Option sell?

Q: How many copies did Nuclear Option sell?

276k to 448k copies, based on its 11k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 276k–448k; $1.5M–$4.1M after Steam's cut $2.8M–$6.3M before Steam's cut; from 11k 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 Nuclear Option and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Nuclear Option's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 793k–1.6M

best case 27.0M (BeamNG.drive)

Games like Nuclear Option

A typical game among these

≈ 793k–1.6M copies

≈ $10.4M–$14.9M after Steam's cut

from ~30k 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: BeamNG.drive at ≈ 20.5M–33.4M copies, ≈ $141.2M–$379.6M after Steam's cut. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 20k reviews in their first month; the range was 6k to 32k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Sandbox (5 of 8) and Flight (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Driving, priced around $25. The breakout hits carry Driving + Automobile Sim + Realistic; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 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 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
Besiege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $5.5M–$14.7M after Steam's cut $9.9M–$22.6M before Steam's cut	$14.99	53k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationSandbox
X4: Foundations 2018	Est. copies ≈ 920k–1.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.7M–$34.0M after Steam's cut $23.0M–$52.3M before Steam's cut	$49.99	30k reviews Mostly Positive	Space SimSimulation
Century: Age of Ashes 2021	Est. copies ≈ 456k–741k SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	18k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayDragons
VTOL VR 2017	Est. copies ≈ 752k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.2M–$16.7M after Steam's cut $11.3M–$25.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FlightVR
BeamNG.drive 2015	Est. copies ≈ 20.5M–33.4M 14x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $141.2M–$379.6M after Steam's cut $256.7M–$584.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	421k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationDriving
Trailmakers 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $7.8M–$21.0M after Steam's cut $14.2M–$32.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	39k reviews Very Positive	SpaceAction
Brick Rigs 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $8.2M–$22.0M after Steam's cut $14.8M–$33.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	60k reviews Very Positive	SandboxDestruction
Avorion 2020	Est. copies ≈ 362k–588k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.5M–$6.7M after Steam's cut $4.5M–$10.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	15k reviews Very Positive	ExplorationSandbox