How much revenue did Bee Island make?

$117k–$314k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Bee Island sell?

Q: How many copies did Bee Island sell?

42k to 69k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 42k–69k; $117k–$314k after Steam's cut $212k–$483k before Steam's cut; from 2k 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 Bee Island and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Bee Island's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 350k–611k

best case 813k (The Riftbreaker)

Games like Bee Island

A typical game among these

≈ 350k–611k copies

≈ $2.0M–$4.3M after Steam's cut

from ~11k 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: The Riftbreaker at ≈ 619k–1.0M copies, ≈ $5.1M–$13.7M 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 7k reviews in their first month; the range was 5k to 10k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Base-Building (5 of 8) and Tower Defense (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Base-Building, priced around $30. The breakout hits carry Free to Play + Strategy + Base-Building; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2024, 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
Rise to Ruins 2019	Est. copies ≈ 224k–363k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $922k–$2.5M after Steam's cut $1.7M–$3.8M before Steam's cut	$14.99	8k reviews Very Positive	Tower Defense Colony Sim
Kingdom: Classic 2015	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	23k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayStrategy
Stronghold: Definitive Edition 2023	Est. copies ≈ 258k–419k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.1M–$2.9M after Steam's cut $1.9M–$4.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	10k reviews Very Positive	City BuilderStrategy
The Riftbreaker 2021	Est. copies ≈ 619k–1.0M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $5.1M–$13.7M after Steam's cut $9.3M–$21.1M before Steam's cut	$29.99	25k reviews Very Positive	Base-BuildingTower Defense
Diplomacy is Not an Option 2024	Est. copies ≈ 315k–512k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.6M–$7.0M after Steam's cut $4.7M–$10.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	13k reviews Very Positive	Real-Time with PauseResource Management
Kingdom: New Lands 2016	Est. copies ≈ 516k–839k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $2.1M–$5.7M after Steam's cut $3.9M–$8.8M before Steam's cut	$14.99	12k reviews Very Positive	Tower Defense Survival
Stronghold HD (2012) 2013	Est. copies ≈ 661k–1.1M SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.1M–$2.9M after Steam's cut $2.0M–$4.5M before Steam's cut	$5.99	10k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Real Time TacticsCity Builder
Night of the Dead 2024	Est. copies ≈ 295k–479k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.4M–$6.5M after Steam's cut $4.4M–$10.1M before Steam's cut	$29.99	12k reviews Mostly Positive	Open World Survival CraftZombies