How much revenue did Universe Sandbox make?

$13.0M–$35.0M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Universe Sandbox sell?

Q: How many copies did Universe Sandbox sell?

1.6M to 2.6M copies, based on its 32k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 1.6M–2.6M; $13.0M–$35.0M after Steam's cut $23.6M–$53.8M before Steam's cut; from 32k 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 Universe Sandbox and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Universe Sandbox's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 5.3M–8.8M

best case 10.7M (Stellaris)

Games like Universe Sandbox

A typical game among these

≈ 5.3M–8.8M copies

≈ $41.1M–$122.6M after Steam's cut

from ~121k 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: Stellaris at ≈ 8.2M–13.3M copies, ≈ $112.6M–$302.6M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Simulation (8 of 8) and Space (8 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Space + Grand Strategy, priced around $50.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2008 to 2021, 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
Dyson Sphere Program 2021	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $12.5M–$33.7M after Steam's cut $22.8M–$51.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	92k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AutomationSpace
Stellaris 2016	Est. copies ≈ 8.2M–13.3M 1.6x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $112.6M–$302.6M after Steam's cut $204.7M–$465.6M before Steam's cut	$49.99	197k reviews Very Positive	SpaceGrand Strategy
Elite Dangerous 2015	Est. copies ≈ 5.3M–8.5M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $28.9M–$77.8M after Steam's cut $52.6M–$119.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	108k reviews Mostly Positive	Space SimSpace
SPORE™ 2008	Est. copies ≈ 4.6M–7.5M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $25.3M–$68.0M after Steam's cut $46.0M–$104.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	73k reviews Very Positive	God GameOpen World
Space Engineers 2019	Est. copies ≈ 3.9M–6.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.3M–$57.3M after Steam's cut $38.7M–$88.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	135k reviews Very Positive	SpaceSandbox
Kerbal Space Program 2015	Est. copies ≈ 7.2M–11.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $79.0M–$212.3M after Steam's cut $143.6M–$326.6M before Steam's cut	$39.99	147k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SpaceSimulation
Empyrion - Galactic Survival 2020	Est. copies ≈ 854k–1.4M too small to compare SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $4.7M–$12.6M after Steam's cut $8.5M–$19.4M before Steam's cut	$19.99	34k reviews Mostly Positive	Simulation Co-op
Surviving Mars 2018	Est. copies ≈ 889k–1.4M too small to compare SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	29k reviews Mostly Positive	Colony Sim City Builder