How much revenue did Game Dev Tycoon make?

$7.8M–$21.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Game Dev Tycoon sell?

Q: How many copies did Game Dev Tycoon sell?

2.9M to 4.6M copies, based on its 45k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2.9M–4.6M; $7.8M–$21.1M after Steam's cut $14.3M–$32.5M before Steam's cut; from 45k 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 Game Dev Tycoon and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Game Dev Tycoon's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 48.3M–91.7M

best case 125.7M (PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS)

Games like Game Dev Tycoon

A typical game among these

≈ 48.3M–91.7M copies

≈ $271.3M–$552.0M after Steam's cut

from ~1.0M 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 First-Person (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: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS at ≈ 95.8M–155.7M copies. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share First-Person (3 of 8) and Sandbox (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Survival + Shooter. The breakout hits carry Shooter + Battle Royale + FPS; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2006 to 2020, 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
Terraria 2011	Est. copies ≈ 98.5M–160.1M 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
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 2017	Est. copies ≈ 95.8M–155.7M 2.7x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	2.8M reviews Mixed	SurvivalShooter
Phasmophobia 2020	Est. copies ≈ 20.9M–33.9M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $114.8M–$308.5M after Steam's cut $208.6M–$474.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	842k reviews Very Positive	HorrorOnline Co-Op
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.5M–70.7M 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
Garry's Mod 2006	Est. copies ≈ 80.0M–130.1M 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
Euro Truck Simulator 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 59.7M–97.0M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $328.0M–$881.9M after Steam's cut $596.4M–$1356.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	944k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DrivingTransportation
Rust 2018	Est. copies ≈ 42.7M–69.3M 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
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M 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