How much revenue did Contrast make?

$992k–$2.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Contrast sell?

Q: How many copies did Contrast sell?

361k to 587k copies, based on its 6k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 361k–587k; $992k–$2.7M after Steam's cut $1.8M–$4.1M before Steam's cut; from 6k reviews (Very 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 Contrast and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Contrast's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 5.7M–8.8M

best case 40.7M (Wallpaper Engine)

Games like Contrast

A typical game among these

≈ 5.7M–8.8M copies

≈ $43.2M–$55.0M after Steam's cut

from ~153k 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 Exploration (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. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Exploration (3 of 8) and First-Person (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Mature + Utilities, priced around $12. The breakout hits carry Mature + Utilities + Anime; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: None of the similar games shipped in the last two years; the newest is from 2018. 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 38 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
The Long Dark 2017	Est. copies ≈ 4.3M–6.9M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $23.4M–$63.0M after Steam's cut $42.6M–$97.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	124k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M 6.6x 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
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
Celeste 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.5M–7.4M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $24.9M–$67.0M after Steam's cut $45.3M–$103.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	149k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Precision PlatformerDifficult
The Forest 2018	Est. copies ≈ 20.8M–33.7M 4.5x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $114.2M–$306.9M after Steam's cut $207.5M–$472.2M before Steam's cut	$19.99	683k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Little Nightmares 2017	Est. copies ≈ 4.0M–6.5M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $22.1M–$59.3M after Steam's cut $40.1M–$91.3M before Steam's cut	$19.99	117k reviews Very Positive	HorrorAtmospheric
Life is Strange - Episode 1 2015	Est. copies ≈ 8.6M–14.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue Free	Free	176k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Story RichChoices Matter
Slime Rancher 2017	Est. copies ≈ 5.4M–8.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $29.8M–$80.2M after Steam's cut $54.2M–$123.4M before Steam's cut	$19.99	158k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CuteExploration