How much revenue did Life is Hard make?

$38k–$102k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Life is Hard sell?

Q: How many copies did Life is Hard sell?

14k to 22k copies, based on its 555 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 14k–22k; $38k–$102k after Steam's cut $69k–$156k before Steam's cut; from 555 reviews (Mixed)

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 Life is Hard and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Life is Hard's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 3.4M–8.8M

best case 9.7M (Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord)

Games like Life is Hard

A typical game among these

≈ 3.4M–8.8M copies

≈ $46.7M–$110.4M after Steam's cut

from ~118k reviews

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

6 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord at ≈ 7.4M–12.0M copies, ≈ $101.7M–$273.3M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 19k reviews in their first month; the range was 35 to 200k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Simulation (6 of 8) and Management (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Medieval + Open World, priced around $50.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2010 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 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
Mountaincore 2025	Est. copies ≈ 7k–11k too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue Free	Free	268 reviews Mixed	StrategySimulation
Dwarf Shop 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3k–4k too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $8k–$20k after Steam's cut $14k–$31k before Steam's cut	$9.99	111 reviews Mostly Positive	DwarfSimulation
Manor Lords 2024	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $25.3M–$68.1M after Steam's cut $46.1M–$104.8M before Steam's cut	$39.99	93k reviews Very Positive	StrategyCity Builder
Crusader Kings III 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.5M–5.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $48.6M–$130.7M after Steam's cut $88.4M–$201.1M before Steam's cut	$49.99	143k reviews Very Positive	StrategyMedieval
Crusader Kings II 2012	Est. copies ≈ 4.7M–7.6M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	74k reviews Very Positive	Grand StrategyStrategy
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 2022	Est. copies ≈ 7.4M–12.0M 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $101.7M–$273.3M after Steam's cut $184.8M–$420.5M before Steam's cut	$49.99	298k reviews Very Positive	MedievalStrategy
Mount & Blade: Warband 2010	Est. copies ≈ 10.9M–17.7M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $59.8M–$160.9M after Steam's cut $108.8M–$247.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	172k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MedievalRPG
Dwarf Fortress 2022	Est. copies ≈ 783k–1.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	32k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim