How much revenue did Factorio make?

$56.4M–$151.5M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Factorio sell?

Q: How many copies did Factorio sell?

5.9M to 9.5M copies, based on its 236k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 5.9M–9.5M; $56.4M–$151.5M after Steam's cut $102.5M–$233.1M before Steam's cut; from 236k 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 Factorio and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Factorio's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 5.5M–8.5M

best case 18.7M (Cities: Skylines)

Games like Factorio

A typical game among these

≈ 5.5M–8.5M copies

≈ $63.7M–$93.5M after Steam's cut

from ~138k 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 Base-Building (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: Cities: Skylines at ≈ 14.2M–23.1M copies, ≈ $117.2M–$315.2M after Steam's cut. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Base-Building (4 of 8) and Building (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with City Builder + Simulation, priced around $40.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2013 to 2024, and 1 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
Cities: Skylines 2015	Est. copies ≈ 14.2M–23.1M 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $117.2M–$315.2M after Steam's cut $213.1M–$484.9M before Steam's cut	$29.99	291k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Simulation
Satisfactory 2024	Est. copies ≈ 6.9M–11.3M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $76.3M–$205.2M after Steam's cut $138.8M–$315.7M before Steam's cut	$39.99	280k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Base-BuildingAutomation
Oxygen Not Included 2019	Est. copies ≈ 4.1M–6.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $28.5M–$76.7M after Steam's cut $51.9M–$118.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	144k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Colony SimBase-Building
Europa Universalis IV 2013	Est. copies ≈ 8.5M–13.8M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $116.6M–$313.5M after Steam's cut $212.0M–$482.3M before Steam's cut	$49.99	134k reviews Very Positive	Grand StrategyStrategy
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 2019	Est. copies ≈ 5.3M–8.6M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $50.7M–$136.2M after Steam's cut $92.1M–$209.6M before Steam's cut	$34.99	183k reviews Very Positive	StrategyRTS
Resident Evil 4 2023	Est. copies ≈ 7.0M–11.3M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $76.4M–$205.5M after Steam's cut $139.0M–$316.2M before Steam's cut	$39.99	280k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	HorrorAction
Frostpunk 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.2M–6.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $34.5M–$92.8M after Steam's cut $62.8M–$142.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	138k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Survival
Age of Empires II (Retired) 2013	Est. copies ≈ 6.5M–10.6M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $35.7M–$96.1M after Steam's cut $65.0M–$147.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	103k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	StrategyRTS