How much revenue did Upstream make?

$1k–$4k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Upstream sell?

Q: How many copies did Upstream sell?

595 to 967 copies, based on its 24 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 595–967; $1k–$4k after Steam's cut $2k–$5k before Steam's cut; from 24 reviews (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 Upstream and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Upstream's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 151k–462k

best case 890k (UBOAT)

Games like Upstream

A typical game among these

≈ 151k–462k copies

≈ $1.1M–$2.6M after Steam's cut

from ~5k 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.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Platformer (4 of 8), so its genre is hard to place.

Of the 416 indie games that passed 1,000 reviews in 2022, 11.8% were novel genre mixes and 88.2% stuck to an established genre. Published indie market research.

Best case: UBOAT at ≈ 678k–1.1M copies, ≈ $5.6M–$15.0M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 2k reviews in their first month; the range was 467 to 19k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Platformer (4 of 8) and Precision Platformer (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + World War II, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 to 2024, and 2 of the 8 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
N++ (NPLUSPLUS) 2016	Est. copies ≈ 149k–241k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $613k–$1.6M after Steam's cut $1.1M–$2.5M before Steam's cut	$14.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Precision Platformer2D Platformer
Thomas Was Alone 2012	Est. copies ≈ 594k–965k 1.8x vs typical 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 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	11k reviews Very Positive	Pixel Graphics2D Platformer
NEW SCUFFED EPIC BHOP SIMULATOR 2023 (POG CHAMP) 2020	Est. copies ≈ 116k–189k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue Free	Free	5k reviews Very Positive	CasualAction
A Difficult Game About Climbing 2024	Est. copies ≈ 141k–230k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $388k–$1.0M after Steam's cut $706k–$1.6M before Steam's cut	$9.99	6k reviews Very Positive	Psychological HorrorDifficult
LEGO® Builder's Journey 2021	Est. copies ≈ 107k–174k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $589k–$1.6M after Steam's cut $1.1M–$2.4M before Steam's cut	$19.99	4k reviews Very Positive	IndieCute
UBOAT 2024	Est. copies ≈ 678k–1.1M 5.3x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.6M–$15.0M after Steam's cut $10.2M–$23.1M before Steam's cut	$29.99	27k reviews Very Positive	SimulationWorld War II
Heavenly Bodies 2021	Est. copies ≈ 112k–182k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $772k–$2.1M after Steam's cut $1.4M–$3.2M before Steam's cut	$24.99	5k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PhysicsDifficult