How much revenue did Braid make?

$2.6M–$7.0M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Braid sell?

Q: How many copies did Braid sell?

629k to 1.0M copies, based on its 10k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 629k–1.0M; $2.6M–$7.0M after Steam's cut $4.7M–$10.7M before Steam's cut; from 10k 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 Braid and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Braid's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 591k–2.4M

best case 4.2M (INSIDE)

Games like Braid

A typical game among these

≈ 591k–2.4M copies

≈ $3.2M–$26.8M after Steam's cut

from ~19k 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: INSIDE at ≈ 3.2M–5.2M copies, ≈ $21.8M–$58.7M 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 749 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Puzzle-Platformer (7 of 8) and Platformer (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with 2.5D + Puzzle-Platformer, priced around $25.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 to 2021, 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
BattleBlock Theater® 2014	Est. copies ≈ 4.1M–6.6M 3.9x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $16.8M–$45.3M after Steam's cut $30.6M–$69.6M before Steam's cut	$14.99	73k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Co-op Platformer
INSIDE 2016	Est. copies ≈ 3.2M–5.2M 4.1x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.8M–$58.7M after Steam's cut $39.7M–$90.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	76k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	2.5DPuzzle-Platformer
Trine 2: Complete Story 2013	Est. copies ≈ 1.4M–2.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $7.7M–$20.6M after Steam's cut $13.9M–$31.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Puzzle-PlatformerPlatformer
Thomas Was Alone 2012	Est. copies ≈ 594k–965k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.6M–$4.4M after Steam's cut $3.0M–$6.7M before Steam's cut	$9.99	9k reviews Very Positive	PlatformerNarration
Deepest Sword 2021	Est. copies ≈ 271k–441k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	11k reviews Very Positive	Pixel Graphics2D Platformer
DDNet 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.2M–1.9M 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	47k reviews Very Positive	Online Co-OpFree to Play
Webbed 2021	Est. copies ≈ 380k–617k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.0M–$2.8M after Steam's cut $1.9M–$4.3M before Steam's cut	$9.99	15k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	2D PlatformerCute
Hue 2016	Est. copies ≈ 474k–770k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.0M–$5.3M after Steam's cut $3.6M–$8.1M before Steam's cut	$14.99	11k reviews Very Positive	IndiePuzzle