How much revenue did Garry's Mod make?

$219.9M–$591.3M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Garry's Mod sell?

Q: How many copies did Garry's Mod sell?

80.0M to 130.1M copies, based on its 1.3M Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 80.0M–130.1M; $219.9M–$591.3M after Steam's cut $399.8M–$909.6M before Steam's cut; from 1.3M 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 Garry's Mod and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Garry's Mod's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 23.8M–95.9M

best case 820.1M (Counter-Strike 2)

Games like Garry's Mod

A typical game among these

≈ 23.8M–95.9M copies

≈ $319.5M–$480.5M after Steam's cut

from ~944k 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 Open World (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: Counter-Strike 2 at ≈ 624.8M–1015.3M copies. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (4 of 8) and Automobile Sim (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Shooter. The breakout hits carry Competitive + e-sports + Tactical; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2007 to 2016, 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 52 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
Grand Theft Auto V Legacy 2015	Est. copies ≈ 101.5M–164.9M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	2.1M reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction
BeamNG.drive 2015	Est. copies ≈ 20.5M–33.4M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $141.2M–$379.6M after Steam's cut $256.7M–$584.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	421k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationDriving
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI 2016	Est. copies ≈ 15.8M–25.7M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $260.5M–$700.4M after Steam's cut $473.7M–$1077.6M before Steam's cut	$59.99	380k reviews Very Positive	StrategyTurn-Based Strategy
Left 4 Dead 2 2009	Est. copies ≈ 67.0M–108.9M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue $184.1M–$495.0M after Steam's cut $334.7M–$761.6M before Steam's cut	$9.99	1.1M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ZombiesCo-op
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition 2016	Est. copies ≈ 15.8M–25.6M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $173.2M–$465.8M after Steam's cut $315.0M–$716.6M before Steam's cut	$39.99	379k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldRPG
Counter-Strike 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 624.8M–1015.3M 10x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	9.9M reviews Very Positive	FPSShooter
Euro Truck Simulator 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 59.7M–97.0M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $328.0M–$881.9M after Steam's cut $596.4M–$1356.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	944k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DrivingTransportation
Team Fortress 2 2007	Est. copies ≈ 79.1M–128.6M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.3M reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayHero Shooter