How much revenue did Half-Life make?

$28.5M–$76.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Half-Life sell?

Q: How many copies did Half-Life sell?

10.4M to 16.9M copies, based on its 164k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 10.4M–16.9M; $28.5M–$76.7M after Steam's cut $51.9M–$118.0M before Steam's cut; from 164k 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 Half-Life and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Half-Life's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 6.7M–17.8M

best case 23.2M (Half-Life 2)

Games like Half-Life

A typical game among these

≈ 6.7M–17.8M copies

≈ $57.7M–$91.6M after Steam's cut

from ~213k 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: Half-Life 2 at ≈ 17.7M–28.8M copies, ≈ $48.6M–$130.7M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share First-Person (6 of 8) and FPS (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Sci-fi, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2000 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
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
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
Halo: The Master Chief Collection 2019	Est. copies ≈ 7.6M–12.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $83.3M–$223.9M after Steam's cut $151.4M–$344.5M before Steam's cut	$39.99	263k reviews Very Positive	Great SoundtrackFPS
Half-Life 2 2004	Est. copies ≈ 17.7M–28.8M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $48.6M–$130.7M after Steam's cut $88.4M–$201.1M before Steam's cut	$9.99	280k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSAction
Portal 2007	Est. copies ≈ 12.6M–20.5M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $34.6M–$93.1M after Steam's cut $63.0M–$143.3M before Steam's cut	$9.99	199k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PuzzlePuzzle-Platformer
Counter-Strike 2000	Est. copies ≈ 16.6M–26.9M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $45.5M–$122.3M after Steam's cut $82.7M–$188.1M before Steam's cut	$9.99	262k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ActionFPS
Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition unreleased	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.2M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	204k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition 2020	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $27.9M–$75.1M after Steam's cut $50.8M–$115.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	205k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction