How much revenue did Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead make?

$75k–$201k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead sell?

Q: How many copies did Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead sell?

14k to 22k copies, based on its 549 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 14k–22k; $75k–$201k after Steam's cut $136k–$310k before Steam's cut; from 549 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 Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 21k–78k

best case 129.3M (Terraria)

Games like Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

A typical game among these

≈ 21k–78k copies

≈ $60k–$525k after Steam's cut

from ~1k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

6 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Terraria at ≈ 98.5M–160.1M copies, ≈ $270.6M–$727.5M 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 86 reviews in their first month; the range was 1 to 2k.

Games with under about 100 reviews in month one almost never recover.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Survival (6 of 8) and Open World (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Survival + Crafting, priced around $25. The breakout hits carry Multiplayer + Crafting + Open World Survival Craft; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 to 2024, and 1 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
Rust 2018	Est. copies ≈ 42.7M–69.3M 1020x 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
Terraria 2011	Est. copies ≈ 98.5M–160.1M 1132x 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
Wayward 2016	Est. copies ≈ 57k–92k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $125k–$336k after Steam's cut $227k–$517k before Steam's cut	$7.99	1k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
UnReal World 2016	Est. copies ≈ 58k–94k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $230k–$618k after Steam's cut $418k–$950k before Steam's cut	$14.50	1k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldSurvival
Rogue Harvest 2018	Est. copies ≈ 2k–3k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $2k–$5k after Steam's cut $3k–$7k before Steam's cut	$2.99	69 reviews Mixed	Action RoguelikeRogue-lite
ZED ZONE 2023	Est. copies ≈ 92k–149k 2.7x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $303k–$814k after Steam's cut $551k–$1.3M before Steam's cut	$11.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessSurvival
Soulash 2 2023	Est. copies ≈ 60k–98k 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $315k–$848k after Steam's cut $573k–$1.3M before Steam's cut	$18.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessSandbox
Evo Born 2024	Est. copies ≈ 74–121 SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $20–$55 after Steam's cut $37–$84 before Steam's cut	$0.99	3 reviews 3 user reviews	AdventureCard Battler