How much revenue did Hollow Knight make?

$80.3M–$215.8M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Hollow Knight sell?

Q: How many copies did Hollow Knight sell?

19.5M to 31.6M copies, based on its 566k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 19.5M–31.6M; $80.3M–$215.8M after Steam's cut $145.9M–$332.0M before Steam's cut; from 566k reviews (Overwhelmingly 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 Hollow Knight and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Hollow Knight's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 584k–1.8M

best case 4.8M (Ori and the Will of the Wisps)

Games like Hollow Knight

A typical game among these

≈ 584k–1.8M copies

≈ $4.4M–$21.7M after Steam's cut

from ~20k 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: Ori and the Will of the Wisps at ≈ 3.6M–5.9M copies, ≈ $30.0M–$80.6M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 8k reviews in their first month; the range was 2k to 23k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Metroidvania (8 of 8) and Souls-like (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Beautiful + Metroidvania, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2016 to 2025, 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 52 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
Ori and the Will of the Wisps 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.9M 7.2x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $30.0M–$80.6M after Steam's cut $54.5M–$124.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	147k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	BeautifulMetroidvania
Blasphemous 2019	Est. copies ≈ 2.0M–3.2M 3.3x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $18.8M–$50.7M after Steam's cut $34.3M–$78.0M before Steam's cut	$34.99	68k reviews Very Positive	MetroidvaniaPixel Graphics
Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight 2016	Est. copies ≈ 498k–809k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before Steam's cut	$9.99	12k reviews Very Positive	Metroidvania2D Platformer
Afterimage 2023	Est. copies ≈ 260k–423k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.8M–$4.8M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.4M before Steam's cut	$24.99	10k reviews Mostly Positive	MetroidvaniaFemale Protagonist
Rogue Legacy 2 2022	Est. copies ≈ 376k–611k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $2.6M–$6.9M after Steam's cut $4.7M–$10.7M before Steam's cut	$24.99	15k reviews Very Positive	ArcadeMetroidvania
ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist 2025	Est. copies ≈ 468k–760k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $3.2M–$8.6M after Steam's cut $5.8M–$13.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	19k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Metroidvania2D
Nine Sols 2024	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.4M–$25.2M after Steam's cut $17.0M–$38.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	46k reviews Very Positive	Metroidvania Souls-like
Salt and Sanctuary 2016	Est. copies ≈ 915k–1.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $4.5M–$12.2M after Steam's cut $8.2M–$18.7M before Steam's cut	$17.99	22k reviews Very Positive	Souls-like Metroidvania