How much revenue did DwarfCorp make?

$4k–$11k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did DwarfCorp sell?

Q: How many copies did DwarfCorp sell?

5k to 8k copies, based on its 175 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 5k–8k; $4k–$11k after Steam's cut $8k–$17k before Steam's cut; from 175 reviews (Mixed)

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 DwarfCorp and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including DwarfCorp's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 67k–163k

best case 1.0M (Dwarf Fortress)

Games like DwarfCorp

A typical game among these

≈ 67k–163k copies

≈ $456k–$572k after Steam's cut

from ~2k 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 Colony Sim (4 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: Dwarf Fortress at ≈ 783k–1.3M copies, ≈ $6.5M–$17.4M 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 1k reviews in their first month; the range was 435 to 16k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Colony Sim (4 of 8) and Dwarf (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Dwarf + Colony Sim, priced around $24. The breakout hits carry Dwarf + Sandbox + Colony Sim; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 to 2024, 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
Noble Fates 2021	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $253k–$681k after Steam's cut $460k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	1k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessColony Sim
Craft The World 2014	Est. copies ≈ 961k–1.6M 7.8x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.0M–$13.5M after Steam's cut $9.1M–$20.8M before Steam's cut	$18.99	17k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Dwarfs!? 2011	Est. copies ≈ 68k–111k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $188k–$505k after Steam's cut $341k–$776k before Steam's cut	$9.99	1k reviews Mostly Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Dwarf Fortress 2022	Est. copies ≈ 783k–1.3M 14x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	32k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
KeeperRL 2024	Est. copies ≈ 45k–73k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $247k–$665k after Steam's cut $450k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	UndergroundSimulation
Regions Of Ruin 2018	Est. copies ≈ 141k–230k 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $466k–$1.3M after Steam's cut $848k–$1.9M before Steam's cut	$11.99	5k reviews Very Positive	RPGAdventure
Maelstrom 2019	Est. copies ≈ 74k–121k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	3k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayPirates
Knights of Pen and Paper 2 2015	Est. copies ≈ 141k–229k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $310k–$834k after Steam's cut $564k–$1.3M before Steam's cut	$7.99	3k reviews Very Positive	RPGTurn-Based