How much revenue did Archean make?

$34k–$93k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Archean sell?

Q: How many copies did Archean sell?

6k to 10k copies, based on its 253 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 6k–10k; $34k–$93k after Steam's cut $63k–$143k before Steam's cut; from 253 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 Archean and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Archean's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 196k–295k

best case 2.0M (Stormworks: Build and Rescue)

Games like Archean

A typical game among these

≈ 196k–295k copies

≈ $1.5M–$2.3M 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: Stormworks: Build and Rescue at ≈ 1.5M–2.4M copies, ≈ $10.3M–$27.6M 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 4k reviews in their first month; the range was 252 to 11k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Simulation (7 of 8) and Automation (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Sandbox + Base-Building, priced around $25. The breakout hits carry Immersive Sim + Flight + Physics; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 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 61 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
Autonauts 2019	Est. copies ≈ 143k–233k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $787k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$19.99	5k reviews Very Positive	SimulationProgramming
Opus Magnum 2017	Est. copies ≈ 250k–407k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	7k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PuzzleProgramming
Starbase 2021	Est. copies ≈ 168k–273k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.6M–$4.3M after Steam's cut $2.9M–$6.7M before Steam's cut	$34.99	7k reviews Mixed	Open WorldBuilding
SHENZHEN I/O 2016	Est. copies ≈ 189k–306k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $777k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.2M before Steam's cut	$14.99	5k reviews Very Positive	ProgrammingAutomation
Stormworks: Build and Rescue 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 9.6x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.3M–$27.6M after Steam's cut $18.7M–$42.5M before Steam's cut	$24.99	60k reviews Very Positive	SandboxBase-Building
Turing Complete 2021	Est. copies ≈ 144k–233k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $789k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.3M before Steam's cut	$19.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ProgrammingLogic
Infinifactory 2015	Est. copies ≈ 121k–197k too small to compare SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $833k–$2.2M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.4M before Steam's cut	$24.99	2k reviews Very Positive	PuzzleBuilding
while True: learn() 2019	Est. copies ≈ 237k–386k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $848k–$2.3M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.5M before Steam's cut	$12.99	8k reviews Very Positive	ProgrammingSimulation