How much revenue did Quake Live make?

$2.4M–$6.6M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Quake Live sell?

Q: How many copies did Quake Live sell?

890k to 1.4M copies, based on its 16k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 890k–1.4M; $2.4M–$6.6M after Steam's cut $4.4M–$10.1M before Steam's cut; from 16k 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 Quake Live and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Quake Live's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 349k–968k

best case 1.3M (Quake Champions)

Games like Quake Live

A typical game among these

≈ 349k–968k copies

≈ $2.0M–$4.9M after Steam's cut

from ~6k 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: Quake Champions at ≈ 972k–1.6M copies, ≈ $2.7M–$7.2M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share FPS (8 of 8) and Classic (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Arena Shooter + Hero Shooter, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2006 to 2022, 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
Quake III Arena 2007	Est. copies ≈ 260k–422k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.1M–$2.9M after Steam's cut $1.9M–$4.4M before Steam's cut	$14.99	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSArena Shooter
Quake II 2007	Est. copies ≈ 659k–1.1M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.9M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.5M before Steam's cut	$9.99	10k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSClassic
Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition 2008	Est. copies ≈ 268k–435k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSArena Shooter
Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition 2008	Est. copies ≈ 282k–458k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ClassicFPS
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source 2006	Est. copies ≈ 353k–574k SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $970k–$2.6M after Steam's cut $1.8M–$4.0M before Steam's cut	$9.99	6k reviews Mostly Positive	ActionFPS
Quake 2007	Est. copies ≈ 1.0M–1.7M 2.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $2.9M–$7.7M after Steam's cut $5.2M–$11.8M before Steam's cut	$9.99	16k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSClassic
TOXIKK™ 2016	Est. copies ≈ 247k–401k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	6k reviews Mostly Positive	FPSAction
Quake Champions 2022	Est. copies ≈ 972k–1.6M 6.8x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $2.7M–$7.2M after Steam's cut $4.9M–$11.0M before Steam's cut	$9.99	39k reviews Mostly Positive	Arena ShooterHero Shooter