How much revenue did Left 4 Dead make?

$11.9M–$31.9M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Left 4 Dead sell?

Q: How many copies did Left 4 Dead sell?

4.3M to 7.0M copies, based on its 68k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 4.3M–7.0M; $11.9M–$31.9M after Steam's cut $21.5M–$49.0M before Steam's cut; from 68k 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 Left 4 Dead and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Left 4 Dead's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 9.7M–20.4M

best case 88.0M (Left 4 Dead 2)

Games like Left 4 Dead

A typical game among these

≈ 9.7M–20.4M copies

≈ $87.8M–$343.8M after Steam's cut

from ~257k 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: Left 4 Dead 2 at ≈ 67.0M–108.9M copies, ≈ $184.1M–$495.0M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share FPS (6 of 8) and Shooter (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Zombies + Co-op, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2009 to 2020, 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
Left 4 Dead 2 2009	Est. copies ≈ 67.0M–108.9M 4.1x vs typical 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
Hunt: Showdown 1896 2019	Est. copies ≈ 8.0M–13.1M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $66.3M–$178.3M after Steam's cut $120.6M–$274.4M before Steam's cut	$29.99	279k reviews Mostly Positive	Open WorldExtraction Shooter
DayZ 2018	Est. copies ≈ 14.3M–23.2M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $196.4M–$527.9M after Steam's cut $357.0M–$812.2M before Steam's cut	$49.99	470k reviews Mostly Positive	SurvivalOpen World
DOOM 2016	Est. copies ≈ 9.2M–15.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $50.7M–$136.4M after Steam's cut $92.3M–$209.9M before Steam's cut	$19.99	222k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSGore
Unturned 2017	Est. copies ≈ 19.4M–31.6M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	565k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlaySurvival
Black Mesa 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $19.8M–$53.2M after Steam's cut $35.9M–$81.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	145k reviews Very Positive	FPSRemake
Call of Duty®: Black Ops III 2015	Est. copies ≈ 11.4M–18.6M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $188.7M–$507.3M after Steam's cut $343.1M–$780.5M before Steam's cut	$59.99	234k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerZombies
Killing Floor 2 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.4M–8.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $44.4M–$119.4M after Steam's cut $80.8M–$183.7M before Steam's cut	$29.99	129k reviews Very Positive	ZombiesMultiplayer