How much revenue did Prison Architect make?

$31.0M–$83.3M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Prison Architect sell?

Q: How many copies did Prison Architect sell?

3.8M to 6.1M copies, based on its 77k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 3.8M–6.1M; $31.0M–$83.3M after Steam's cut $56.3M–$128.2M before Steam's cut; from 77k 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 Prison Architect and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Prison Architect's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 12.9M–56.3M

best case 56.0M (Rust)

Games like Prison Architect

A typical game among these

≈ 12.9M–56.3M copies

≈ $181.7M–$391.7M after Steam's cut

from ~583k 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: Rust at ≈ 42.7M–69.3M copies, ≈ $469.3M–$1261.8M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (5 of 8) and Open World Survival Craft (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Survival + Crafting, priced around $40.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2006 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 2.4x 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
Raft 2022	Est. copies ≈ 9.4M–15.3M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $51.7M–$139.0M after Steam's cut $94.0M–$213.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	379k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalMultiplayer
Project Zomboid 2013	Est. copies ≈ 30.5M–49.6M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $209.9M–$564.4M after Steam's cut $381.6M–$868.2M before Steam's cut	$24.99	483k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalZombies
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.5M–70.7M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $179.4M–$482.4M after Steam's cut $326.2M–$742.1M before Steam's cut	$14.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Farming SimPixel Graphics
7 Days to Die 2024	Est. copies ≈ 9.9M–16.2M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $123.1M–$331.0M after Steam's cut $223.8M–$509.2M before Steam's cut	$44.99	401k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalZombies
People Playground 2019	Est. copies ≈ 9.2M–15.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $25.4M–$68.2M after Steam's cut $46.1M–$104.9M before Steam's cut	$9.99	321k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SandboxGore
The Forest 2018	Est. copies ≈ 20.8M–33.7M 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
Garry's Mod 2006	Est. copies ≈ 80.0M–130.1M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $219.9M–$591.3M after Steam's cut $399.8M–$909.6M before Steam's cut	$9.99	1.3M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SandboxModdable