How much revenue did Espire 1: VR Operative make?

$92k–$248k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Espire 1: VR Operative sell?

Q: How many copies did Espire 1: VR Operative sell?

17k to 27k copies, based on its 582 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 17k–27k; $92k–$248k after Steam's cut $168k–$381k before Steam's cut; from 582 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 Espire 1: VR Operative and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Espire 1: VR Operative's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 755k–2.3M

best case 2.8M (Gorilla Tag)

Games like Espire 1: VR Operative

A typical game among these

≈ 755k–2.3M copies

≈ $15.6M–$24.9M after Steam's cut

from ~46k reviews

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

4 of the 8 similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is VR (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: Gorilla Tag at ≈ 2.1M–3.5M copies, ≈ $11.7M–$31.6M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

The games that made it here had under 25k reviews in their first month.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share VR (4 of 8) and Horror (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with VR + Psychological Horror, priced around $20.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2017 to 2026, 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 43 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
F1® 23 2023	Est. copies ≈ 437k–710k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	18k reviews Very Positive	VRRacing
GROUND BRANCH 2026	Est. copies ≈ 621k–1.0M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $5.1M–$13.8M after Steam's cut $9.3M–$21.2M before Steam's cut	$29.99	25k reviews Very Positive	TacticalRealistic
Gorilla Tag 2023	Est. copies ≈ 2.1M–3.5M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $11.7M–$31.6M after Steam's cut $21.4M–$48.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	86k reviews Very Positive	VRPsychological Horror
Bodycam 2024	Est. copies ≈ 1.7M–2.7M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $15.3M–$41.1M after Steam's cut $27.8M–$63.3M before Steam's cut	$33.32	67k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessFPS
Vehicle VR 2017	Est. copies ≈ 1k–2k too small to compare SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $621–$2k after Steam's cut $1k–$3k before Steam's cut	$1.99	33 reviews Mixed	3D PlatformerRacing
极限挑战：登录星球 2020	Est. copies ≈ 25–40 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $96–$255 after Steam's cut $175–$392 before Steam's cut	$13.99	1 reviews 1 user reviews	StrategyPvP
RoboDo 2020	Est. copies ≈ 372–605 too small to compare SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $2k–$5k after Steam's cut $3k–$8k before Steam's cut	$17.99	15 reviews Positive	MultiplayerCasual
Tactical Rampart 2023	Est. copies ≈ 25–40 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $28–$73 after Steam's cut $50–$112 before Steam's cut	$3.99	1 reviews 1 user reviews	ActionStrategy