How much revenue did Maxwell's puzzling demon make?

$44k–$118k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Maxwell's puzzling demon sell?

Q: How many copies did Maxwell's puzzling demon sell?

11k to 17k copies, based on its 428 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 11k–17k; $44k–$118k after Steam's cut $80k–$181k before Steam's cut; from 428 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 Maxwell's puzzling demon and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Maxwell's puzzling demon's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 5k–28k

best case 192k (Patrick's Parabox)

Games like Maxwell's puzzling demon

A typical game among these

≈ 5k–28k copies

≈ $5k–$127k after Steam's cut

from ~250 reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

2 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Patrick's Parabox at ≈ 146k–237k copies, ≈ $803k–$2.2M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 74 reviews in their first month; the range was 21 to 897.

Games with under about 100 reviews in month one almost never recover.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Logic (8 of 8) and Puzzle (8 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Puzzle + Sokoban, priced around $20.
When they shipped: None of the similar games shipped in the last two years; the newest is from 2023. That says more about which games were found than about the market.

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 38 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
Patrick's Parabox 2022	Est. copies ≈ 146k–237k 24x vs typical SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $803k–$2.2M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$19.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PuzzleSokoban
Hexologic 2018	Est. copies ≈ 42k–67k 5.5x vs typical SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $57k–$153k after Steam's cut $104k–$236k before Steam's cut	$4.99	1k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	LogicPuzzle
Chess Brain 2020	Est. copies ≈ 4k–7k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $1k–$3k after Steam's cut $2k–$5k before Steam's cut	$0.99	164 reviews Very Positive	SokobanChess
Block in the Lock 2019	Est. copies ≈ 2k–4k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue Free	Free	75 reviews Very Positive	SokobanPuzzle
Yugo Puzzle 2021	Est. copies ≈ 8k–14k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $14k–$37k after Steam's cut $25k–$57k before Steam's cut	$5.99	336 reviews Very Positive	PuzzleIndie
Can of Wormholes 2023	Est. copies ≈ 15k–24k 2.4x vs typical SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $81k–$218k after Steam's cut $147k–$336k before Steam's cut	$19.99	595 reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SokobanIndie
Knight Swap 2019	Est. copies ≈ 4k–7k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $1k–$3k after Steam's cut $2k–$5k before Steam's cut	$0.99	149 reviews Very Positive	SokobanPuzzle
Rob Riches 2021	Est. copies ≈ 2k–3k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $4k–$10k after Steam's cut $7k–$16k before Steam's cut	$6.99	81 reviews Very Positive	Puzzle Platformer