How much revenue did ESEA make?

ESEA is free to play, so there is no copy-sales revenue to estimate.

How many copies did ESEA sell?

Q: How many copies did ESEA sell?

172k to 280k copies, based on its 4k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 172k–280k; from 4k reviews (Mostly 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 ESEA and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including ESEA's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 18.4M–45.9M

best case 133.2M (Grand Theft Auto V Legacy)

Games like ESEA

A typical game among these

≈ 18.4M–45.9M copies

≈ $78.4M–$741.4M after Steam's cut

from ~937k reviews

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

7 of the 8 similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Mature (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: Grand Theft Auto V Legacy at ≈ 101.5M–164.9M copies.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 291 reviews in their first month; the range was 17 to 326k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Mature (4 of 8) and Animation & Modeling (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World + Crime.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 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 61 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
Red Dead Redemption 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 26.6M–43.2M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $438.4M–$1178.6M after Steam's cut $797.0M–$1813.3M before Steam's cut	$59.99	923k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldStory Rich
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut $77.3M–$175.9M before Steam's cut	$4.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MatureUtilities
Soundpad 2017	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.9M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $4.9M–$13.3M after Steam's cut $9.0M–$20.5M before Steam's cut	$4.99	105k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	UtilitiesAudio Production
Cyberpunk 2077 2020	Est. copies ≈ 24.4M–39.6M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $402.0M–$1080.8M after Steam's cut $730.9M–$1662.7M before Steam's cut	$59.99	983k reviews Very Positive	CyberpunkOpen World
Dead by Daylight 2016	Est. copies ≈ 39.0M–63.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $214.2M–$575.9M after Steam's cut $389.4M–$886.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	937k reviews Mostly Positive	HorrorMultiplayer
HAELE 3D - Feet Poses Lite - Drawing References 2023	Est. copies ≈ 595–967 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $3k–$8k after Steam's cut $5k–$12k before Steam's cut	$17.99	24 reviews Positive	Design & IllustrationAnimation & Modeling
VTube Studio 2021	Est. copies ≈ 183k–297k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	7k reviews Very Positive	IndieMature