How much revenue did Shadowgrounds make?

$197k–$530k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Shadowgrounds sell?

Q: How many copies did Shadowgrounds sell?

103k to 167k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 103k–167k; $197k–$530k after Steam's cut $359k–$816k 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 Shadowgrounds and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Shadowgrounds's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 277k–379k

best case 3.9M (Brotato)

Games like Shadowgrounds

A typical game among these

≈ 277k–379k copies

≈ $591k–$1.1M after Steam's cut

from ~5k 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.

These similar games lean toward the genre's biggest winners; the typical figure comes from its ordinary successes.

Best case: Brotato at ≈ 3.0M–4.8M copies, ≈ $4.1M–$10.9M 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 41k reviews in their first month; the range was 6k to 42k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Sci-fi (5 of 8) and Aliens (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Dwarf + Action Roguelike, priced around $13.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2009 to 2025, 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
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor 2025	Est. copies ≈ 1.2M–2.0M 10x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $4.3M–$11.6M after Steam's cut $7.8M–$17.8M before Steam's cut	$12.99	49k reviews Very Positive	DwarfAction Roguelike
Brotato 2023	Est. copies ≈ 3.0M–4.8M 25x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $4.1M–$10.9M after Steam's cut $7.4M–$16.8M before Steam's cut	$4.99	119k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Rogue-likeSingleplayer
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop 2017	Est. copies ≈ 819k–1.3M 5.0x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	24k reviews Very Positive	Twin Stick ShooterPvE
Aliens: Dark Descent 2023	Est. copies ≈ 469k–763k 4.0x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.2M–$13.9M after Steam's cut $9.4M–$21.4M before Steam's cut	$39.99	19k reviews Very Positive	StrategyAction
Alien Shooter 2009	Est. copies ≈ 302k–490k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $414k–$1.1M after Steam's cut $752k–$1.7M before Steam's cut	$4.99	5k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ShooterAction
Alien Swarm 2010	Est. copies ≈ 1.4M–2.2M 4.5x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	22k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayCo-op
Halo: Spartan Assault 2014	Est. copies ≈ 277k–449k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $227k–$611k after Steam's cut $413k–$941k before Steam's cut	$2.99	5k reviews Mostly Positive	ActionTop-Down Shooter
X-Morph: Defense 2017	Est. copies ≈ 146k–237k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $803k–$2.2M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$19.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Tower DefenseStrategy