How much revenue did Ancient Cities make?

$444k–$1.2M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Ancient Cities sell?

Q: How many copies did Ancient Cities sell?

54k to 88k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 54k–88k; $444k–$1.2M after Steam's cut $808k–$1.8M before Steam's cut; from 2k 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 Ancient Cities and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Ancient Cities's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 756k–4.3M

best case 6.9M (Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition)

Games like Ancient Cities

A typical game among these

≈ 756k–4.3M copies

≈ $8.9M–$55.2M after Steam's cut

from ~29k 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.

Best case: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition at ≈ 5.3M–8.6M copies, ≈ $50.7M–$136.2M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 12k reviews in their first month; the range was 503 to 44k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share City Builder (8 of 8) and Historical (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with RTS + City Builder, priced around $35.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2018 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 38 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
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 2019	Est. copies ≈ 5.3M–8.6M 6.3x vs typical 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
Ostriv 2020	Est. copies ≈ 191k–310k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.3M–$3.5M after Steam's cut $2.4M–$5.4M before Steam's cut	$24.99	8k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Early AccessStrategy
HUMANKIND™ 2021	Est. copies ≈ 715k–1.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.8M–$26.4M after Steam's cut $17.9M–$40.7M before Steam's cut	$49.99	29k reviews Mixed	StrategyTurn-Based Strategy
Dawn of Man 2019	Est. copies ≈ 514k–836k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.5M–$9.5M after Steam's cut $6.4M–$14.6M before Steam's cut	$24.99	18k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Colony Sim
Manor Lords 2024	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.7M 3.2x vs typical 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
Farthest Frontier 2025	Est. copies ≈ 638k–1.0M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.5M after Steam's cut $11.2M–$25.4M before Steam's cut	$34.99	26k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessHistorical
Frostpunk 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.2M–6.8M 4.8x vs typical 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
Ragnorium 2022	Est. copies ≈ 15k–25k too small to compare SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $106k–$285k after Steam's cut $193k–$439k before Steam's cut	$24.99	623 reviews Mixed	SurvivalHistorical