How much revenue did Chess Ultra make?

$285k–$766k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Chess Ultra sell?

Q: How many copies did Chess Ultra sell?

80k to 130k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 80k–130k; $285k–$766k after Steam's cut $518k–$1.2M before Steam's cut; from 2k 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 Chess Ultra and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Chess Ultra's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 51k–193k

best case 4.8M (Tabletop Simulator)

Games like Chess Ultra

A typical game among these

≈ 51k–193k copies

≈ $134k–$1.1M after Steam's cut

from ~2k 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 Board Game (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: Tabletop Simulator at ≈ 3.6M–5.9M copies, ≈ $20.0M–$53.8M 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 Board Game (4 of 8) and Chess (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Board Game, priced around $16. The breakout hits carry Board Game + Tabletop + Sandbox; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 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
Prismata 2018	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessStrategy
Tabletop Simulator 2015	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.9M 41x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $20.0M–$53.8M after Steam's cut $36.4M–$82.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	75k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	TabletopBoard Game
GLADIABOTS - AI Combat Arena 2019	Est. copies ≈ 26k–43k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $109k–$293k after Steam's cut $198k–$450k before Steam's cut	$14.99	917 reviews Very Positive	StrategyArtificial Intelligence
Simply Chess 2015	Est. copies ≈ 178k–289k 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Mostly Positive	ChessBoard Game
King of the Bridge 2024	Est. copies ≈ 44k–71k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $36k–$97k after Steam's cut $66k–$150k before Steam's cut	$2.99	2k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PuzzleStrategy
5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel 2020	Est. copies ≈ 223k–362k 4.9x vs typical SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $735k–$2.0M after Steam's cut $1.3M–$3.0M before Steam's cut	$11.99	9k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ChessTime Travel
Frozen Synapse 2011	Est. copies ≈ 165k–269k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.1M–$3.1M after Steam's cut $2.1M–$4.7M before Steam's cut	$24.99	3k reviews Very Positive	StrategyTurn-Based
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide 2015	Est. copies ≈ 93k–151k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue Free	Free	2k reviews Mixed	Warhammer 40KStrategy