How much revenue did Airport CEO make?

$1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Airport CEO sell?

Q: How many copies did Airport CEO sell?

207k to 337k copies, based on its 8k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 207k–337k; $1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut $2.6M–$5.9M before Steam's cut; from 8k reviews (Very 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 Airport CEO and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Airport CEO's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 115k–10.4M

best case 27.0M (BeamNG.drive)

Games like Airport CEO

A typical game among these

≈ 115k–10.4M copies

≈ $1.3M–$132.0M after Steam's cut

from ~22k reviews

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

6 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: BeamNG.drive at ≈ 20.5M–33.4M copies, ≈ $141.2M–$379.6M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 708 reviews in their first month; the range was 40 to 86k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Sandbox (8 of 8) and Management (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Driving, priced around $25.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 to 2026, 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 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
Transport Fever 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 950k–1.5M 1.5x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.4M–$28.1M after Steam's cut $19.0M–$43.2M before Steam's cut	$39.99	33k reviews Very Positive	SimulationStrategy
BeamNG.drive 2015	Est. copies ≈ 20.5M–33.4M 19x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $141.2M–$379.6M after Steam's cut $256.7M–$584.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	421k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationDriving
NEBULOUS: Fleet Command 2022	Est. copies ≈ 110k–179k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $908k–$2.4M after Steam's cut $1.7M–$3.8M before Steam's cut	$29.99	4k reviews Very Positive	StrategySpace
Factorio 2020	Est. copies ≈ 5.9M–9.5M 11x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $56.4M–$151.5M after Steam's cut $102.5M–$233.1M before Steam's cut	$35.00	236k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AutomationBase-Building
Transport Fever 2016	Est. copies ≈ 452k–734k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.7M–$10.0M after Steam's cut $6.8M–$15.4M before Steam's cut	$29.99	11k reviews Very Positive	FlightCity Builder
Solargene 2026	Est. copies ≈ 21k–34k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $204k–$549k after Steam's cut $371k–$845k before Steam's cut	$34.99	856 reviews Mostly Positive	Early AccessColony Sim
Rocket Science 2020	Est. copies ≈ 4k–7k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $24k–$65k after Steam's cut $44k–$99k before Steam's cut	$19.99	176 reviews Very Positive	SpaceExploration
Cities: Skylines 2015	Est. copies ≈ 14.2M–23.1M 13x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $117.2M–$315.2M after Steam's cut $213.1M–$484.9M before Steam's cut	$29.99	291k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Simulation