How much revenue did Return from Core make?

$211k–$568k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Return from Core sell?

Q: How many copies did Return from Core sell?

45k to 73k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 45k–73k; $211k–$568k after Steam's cut $384k–$873k before Steam's cut; from 2k reviews (Mostly 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 Return from Core and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Return from Core's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 881k–8.0M

best case 16.0M (Palworld)

Games like Return from Core

A typical game among these

≈ 881k–8.0M copies

≈ $6.2M–$113.1M after Steam's cut

from ~107k 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: Palworld at ≈ 12.2M–19.8M copies, ≈ $100.5M–$270.1M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 32k reviews in their first month; the range was 7k to 469k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (6 of 8) and Survival (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World + Survival, priced around $30.
When they shipped: 5 of the 8 similar games shipped in the last two years. You'd be launching into a busy stretch.

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 36 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
Satisfactory 2024	Est. copies ≈ 6.9M–11.3M 2.6x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $76.3M–$205.2M after Steam's cut $138.8M–$315.7M before Steam's cut	$39.99	280k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Base-BuildingAutomation
Palworld 2026	Est. copies ≈ 12.2M–19.8M 4.6x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue $100.5M–$270.1M after Steam's cut $182.7M–$415.6M before Steam's cut	$29.99	491k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldSurvival
Necesse 2025	Est. copies ≈ 727k–1.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.0M–$8.1M after Steam's cut $5.5M–$12.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	29k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftMultiplayer
The Planet Crafter 2024	Est. copies ≈ 1.9M–3.0M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.2M–$32.9M after Steam's cut $22.3M–$50.6M before Steam's cut	$23.99	75k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftBase-Building
ASTRONEER 2019	Est. copies ≈ 4.0M–6.5M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $33.1M–$89.1M after Steam's cut $60.2M–$137.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	139k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerOpen World
Factorio 2020	Est. copies ≈ 5.9M–9.5M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $56.4M–$151.5M after Steam's cut $102.5M–$233.1M before Steam's cut	$35.00	236k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AutomationBase-Building
Craftopia 2020	Est. copies ≈ 502k–816k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.5M–$9.3M after Steam's cut $6.3M–$14.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	20k reviews Mostly Positive	Open WorldCrafting
Outpost: Infinity Siege 2024	Est. copies ≈ 338k–550k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.3M–$6.2M after Steam's cut $4.2M–$9.6M before Steam's cut	$24.99	14k reviews Mixed	Robots3D