How much revenue did Sid Meier's Pirates! make?

$1.3M–$3.5M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Sid Meier's Pirates! sell?

Q: How many copies did Sid Meier's Pirates! sell?

478k to 777k copies, based on its 8k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 478k–777k; $1.3M–$3.5M after Steam's cut $2.4M–$5.4M before Steam's cut; from 8k 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 Sid Meier's Pirates! and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Sid Meier's Pirates!'s, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 678k–1.5M

best case 2.6M (Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™)

Games like Sid Meier's Pirates!

A typical game among these

≈ 678k–1.5M copies

≈ $5.7M–$13.6M after Steam's cut

from ~21k 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: Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™ at ≈ 1.9M–3.2M copies, ≈ $21.4M–$57.7M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (6 of 8) and Pirates (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Pirates + Open World, priced around $40.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2005 to 2023, 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
ATLAS 2018	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.8M–$28.9M after Steam's cut $19.6M–$44.5M before Steam's cut	$29.99	43k reviews Mixed	SurvivalOpen World
Risen 2: Dark Waters 2012	Est. copies ≈ 430k–698k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.2M–$3.2M after Steam's cut $2.1M–$4.9M before Steam's cut	$9.99	7k reviews Mostly Positive	RPGPirates
ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 2023	Est. copies ≈ 545k–886k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.0M–$16.1M after Steam's cut $10.9M–$24.8M before Steam's cut	$39.99	22k reviews Very Positive	AnimeHack and Slash
GreedFall 2019	Est. copies ≈ 636k–1.0M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.4M after Steam's cut $11.1M–$25.3M before Steam's cut	$34.99	22k reviews Mostly Positive	RPGOpen World
Naval Action 2019	Est. copies ≈ 428k–695k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.4M–$6.3M after Steam's cut $4.3M–$9.7M before Steam's cut	$19.99	15k reviews Mixed	SailingNaval Combat
Gothic II: Gold Edition 2005	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.2M–$16.8M after Steam's cut $11.3M–$25.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	18k reviews Very Positive	RPGClassic
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire 2018	Est. copies ≈ 611k–993k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.4M–$9.0M after Steam's cut $6.1M–$13.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	20k reviews Very Positive	RPGParty-Based RPG
Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™ unreleased	Est. copies ≈ 1.9M–3.2M 3.7x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $21.4M–$57.7M after Steam's cut $39.0M–$88.7M before Steam's cut	$39.99	79k reviews Very Positive	PiratesOpen World