How much revenue did DayZ make?

$196.4M–$527.9M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did DayZ sell?

Q: How many copies did DayZ sell?

14.3M to 23.2M copies, based on its 470k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 14.3M–23.2M; $196.4M–$527.9M after Steam's cut $357.0M–$812.2M before Steam's cut; from 470k 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 DayZ and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including DayZ's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 16.0M–29.7M

best case 125.7M (PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS)

Games like DayZ

A typical game among these

≈ 16.0M–29.7M copies

≈ $172.0M–$211.9M after Steam's cut

from ~496k 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: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS at ≈ 95.8M–155.7M copies. 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 469k reviews in their first month; the range was 40k to 558k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Survival (7 of 8) and Crafting (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Survival, priced around $25. The breakout hits carry PvP + Sandbox; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 to 2026, and 2 of the 8 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
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 2017	Est. copies ≈ 95.8M–155.7M 5.6x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	2.8M reviews Mixed	SurvivalShooter
Valheim 2026	Est. copies ≈ 13.9M–22.6M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $114.9M–$308.9M after Steam's cut $208.9M–$475.2M before Steam's cut	$29.99	562k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Terraria 2011	Est. copies ≈ 98.5M–160.1M 3.1x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $270.6M–$727.5M after Steam's cut $492.0M–$1119.3M before Steam's cut	$9.99	1.6M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSandbox
Don't Starve Together 2016	Est. copies ≈ 22.6M–36.8M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $93.2M–$250.7M after Steam's cut $169.5M–$385.7M before Steam's cut	$14.99	544k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
Deep Rock Galactic 2020	Est. copies ≈ 9.4M–15.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $77.8M–$209.2M after Steam's cut $141.5M–$321.9M before Steam's cut	$29.99	380k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DwarfCo-op
Dying Light 2015	Est. copies ≈ 24.2M–39.3M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $166.4M–$447.4M after Steam's cut $302.5M–$688.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	496k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ZombiesSurvival Horror
Palworld 2026	Est. copies ≈ 12.2M–19.8M 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
Rust 2018	Est. copies ≈ 42.7M–69.3M 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $469.3M–$1261.8M after Steam's cut $853.3M–$1941.3M before Steam's cut	$39.99	1.4M reviews Very Positive	SurvivalCrafting