How much revenue did Carmen Sandiego make?

$20k–$53k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Carmen Sandiego sell?

Q: How many copies did Carmen Sandiego sell?

2k to 4k copies, based on its 97 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2k–4k; $20k–$53k after Steam's cut $36k–$82k before Steam's cut; from 97 reviews (Mostly 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 Carmen Sandiego and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Carmen Sandiego's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 353k–842k

best case 3.1M (L.A. Noire)

Games like Carmen Sandiego

A typical game among these

≈ 353k–842k copies

≈ $2.9M–$4.0M after Steam's cut

from ~14k 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: L.A. Noire at ≈ 2.3M–3.8M copies, ≈ $12.8M–$34.5M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 1k reviews in their first month; the range was 75 to 7k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Puzzle (7 of 8) and Detective (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Detective + Crime, priced around $20.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 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
Murders on the Yangtze River 2024	Est. copies ≈ 528k–858k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.0M before Steam's cut	$14.99	21k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DetectiveAdventure
Escape Room - Der kranke Kollege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 312k–507k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	13k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerFree to Play
Strange Horticulture 2022	Est. copies ≈ 401k–652k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.7M after Steam's cut $3.2M–$7.3M before Steam's cut	$15.99	16k reviews Very Positive	MysteryPuzzle
Unheard - Voices of Crime 2019	Est. copies ≈ 981k–1.6M 2.4x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.9M–$5.1M after Steam's cut $3.4M–$7.8M before Steam's cut	$6.99	34k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DetectivePuzzle
Operation: Tango 2021	Est. copies ≈ 222k–360k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.2M–$3.3M after Steam's cut $2.2M–$5.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	9k reviews Very Positive	Online Co-OpPuzzle
Enigma of Fear 2024	Est. copies ≈ 257k–417k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.1M–$5.7M after Steam's cut $3.9M–$8.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	10k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MysteryInvestigation
L.A. Noire 2011	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.8M 2.6x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $12.8M–$34.5M after Steam's cut $23.4M–$53.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	37k reviews Very Positive	DetectiveCrime
The Case of the Golden Idol 2022	Est. copies ≈ 273k–444k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.6M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.6M before Steam's cut	$17.99	11k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MysteryDetective