How much revenue did ZM Desktop Elf make?

$63k–$169k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did ZM Desktop Elf sell?

Q: How many copies did ZM Desktop Elf sell?

57k to 93k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 57k–93k; $63k–$169k after Steam's cut $114k–$260k before Steam's cut; from 2k 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 ZM Desktop Elf and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including ZM Desktop Elf's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 63k–209k

best case 548k (Spirit City: Lofi Sessions)

Games like ZM Desktop Elf

A typical game among these

≈ 63k–209k copies

≈ $136k–$305k after Steam's cut

from ~4k reviews

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

7 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Spirit City: Lofi Sessions at ≈ 418k–679k copies, ≈ $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 569 reviews in their first month; the range was 41 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Utilities (8 of 8) and Idler (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Cozy + Utilities, priced around $12.
When they shipped: 6 of the 8 similar games shipped in the last two years. You'd be launching into a busy stretch.

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 of about 31, 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
Virtual Cottage 2020	Est. copies ≈ 275k–448k 2.7x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	11k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CozyRelaxing
Ropuka's Idle Island 2025	Est. copies ≈ 107k–174k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $118k–$316k after Steam's cut $214k–$486k before Steam's cut	$3.99	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	IdlerRelaxing
Ithya: Magic Studies 2025	Est. copies ≈ 55k–89k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $166k–$446k after Steam's cut $302k–$686k before Steam's cut	$10.99	2k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CasualCozy
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions 2024	Est. copies ≈ 418k–679k 4.2x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before Steam's cut	$11.99	17k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CozyRelaxing
Mini Cozy Room: Lo-Fi 2025	Est. copies ≈ 93k–152k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $128k–$345k after Steam's cut $233k–$531k before Steam's cut	$4.99	4k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MusicCozy
LurkBait Twitch Fishing 2024	Est. copies ≈ 16k–25k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $30k–$80k after Steam's cut $54k–$124k before Steam's cut	$7.00	627 reviews Very Positive	SimulationCreature Collector
Chill Pulse 2024	Est. copies ≈ 120k–195k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $165k–$443k after Steam's cut $299k–$681k before Steam's cut	$4.99	5k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CasualUtilities
TaskPals 2023	Est. copies ≈ 27k–44k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $22k–$60k after Steam's cut $41k–$92k before Steam's cut	$2.99	1k reviews Very Positive	SoftwareUtilities