How much revenue did Hyper Light Drifter make?

$4.4M–$11.8M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Hyper Light Drifter sell?

Q: How many copies did Hyper Light Drifter sell?

799k to 1.3M copies, based on its 19k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 799k–1.3M; $4.4M–$11.8M after Steam's cut $8.0M–$18.2M before Steam's cut; from 19k 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 Hyper Light Drifter and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Hyper Light Drifter's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 6.5M–16.4M

best case 57.1M (Stardew Valley)

Games like Hyper Light Drifter

A typical game among these

≈ 6.5M–16.4M copies

≈ $40.6M–$149.5M after Steam's cut

from ~166k 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 Action Roguelike (2 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: Stardew Valley at ≈ 43.5M–70.7M copies, ≈ $179.4M–$482.4M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Action Roguelike (2 of 8) and Rogue-like (2 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Farming Sim + Life Sim, priced around $15.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 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
RimWorld 2018	Est. copies ≈ 7.6M–12.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $72.7M–$195.4M after Steam's cut $132.2M–$300.7M before Steam's cut	$34.99	249k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Colony SimBase-Building
OMORI 2020	Est. copies ≈ 2.2M–3.6M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.1M–$32.6M after Steam's cut $22.0M–$50.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	89k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Story Rich
Hotline Miami 2012	Est. copies ≈ 8.1M–13.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $22.3M–$60.0M after Steam's cut $40.6M–$92.3M before Steam's cut	$9.99	128k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Great SoundtrackViolent
Dead Cells 2018	Est. copies ≈ 5.6M–9.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $38.4M–$103.2M after Steam's cut $69.8M–$158.8M before Steam's cut	$24.99	184k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AdventureAction Roguelike
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 2014	Est. copies ≈ 25.8M–41.9M 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $106.2M–$285.5M after Steam's cut $193.0M–$439.2M before Steam's cut	$14.99	460k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Action RoguelikeRogue-like
Starbound 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.1M–$56.9M after Steam's cut $38.4M–$87.5M before Steam's cut	$14.99	123k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSandbox
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.5M–70.7M 6.3x vs typical 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
Celeste 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.5M–7.4M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $24.9M–$67.0M after Steam's cut $45.3M–$103.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	149k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Precision PlatformerDifficult