How much revenue did Detective Dotson make?

$17k–$46k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Detective Dotson sell?

Q: How many copies did Detective Dotson sell?

4k to 7k copies, based on its 169 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 4k–7k; $17k–$46k after Steam's cut $31k–$71k before Steam's cut; from 169 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 Detective Dotson and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Detective Dotson's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 3k–262k

best case 627k (A Little to the Left)

Games like Detective Dotson

A typical game among these

≈ 3k–262k copies

≈ $2k–$948k after Steam's cut

from ~891 reviews

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

4 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: A Little to the Left at ≈ 478k–777k copies, ≈ $2.0M–$5.3M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 38 reviews in their first month; the range was 4 to 579.

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

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Puzzle (6 of 8) and Wholesome (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Puzzle + Wholesome, priced around $15.
When they shipped: 4 of the 8 similar games shipped in the last two years, so this genre is actively shipping.

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 36 for the oldest, then widened into a range; revenue rides on that estimate times price. Source: GameDiscoverCo (2020) and VG Insights (2021).

Similar games

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Agent A: A puzzle in disguise 2019	Est. copies ≈ 180k–293k 7.0x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $992k–$2.7M after Steam's cut $1.8M–$4.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	LogicPoint & Click
A Little to the Left 2022	Est. copies ≈ 478k–777k 22x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.0M–$5.3M after Steam's cut $3.6M–$8.2M before Steam's cut	$14.99	19k reviews Very Positive	PuzzleRelaxing
Down in Bermuda 2021	Est. copies ≈ 41k–67k 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $228k–$612k after Steam's cut $414k–$942k before Steam's cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	PuzzleHidden Object
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