How much revenue did VVVVVV make?

$916k–$2.5M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did VVVVVV sell?

Q: How many copies did VVVVVV sell?

667k to 1.1M copies, based on its 11k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 667k–1.1M; $916k–$2.5M after Steam's cut $1.7M–$3.8M before Steam's cut; from 11k 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 VVVVVV and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including VVVVVV's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 453k–519k

best case 5.9M (Celeste)

Games like VVVVVV

A typical game among these

≈ 453k–519k copies

≈ $1.3M–$2.2M after Steam's cut

from ~12k 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.

These similar games lean toward the genre's biggest winners; the typical figure comes from its ordinary successes.

Best case: Celeste at ≈ 4.5M–7.4M copies, ≈ $24.9M–$67.0M after Steam's cut. It is a breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 7k reviews in their first month; the range was 1k to 14k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Platformer (6 of 8) and 2D Platformer (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Story Rich + Cyberpunk, priced around $17. The breakout hits carry Singleplayer + Action-Adventure; a typical game here doesn't.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2010 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
Downwell 2015	Est. copies ≈ 421k–685k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $346k–$931k after Steam's cut $630k–$1.4M before Steam's cut	$2.99	9k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Precision PlatformerAction Roguelike
SANABI 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M 3.7x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.6M–$12.4M after Steam's cut $8.4M–$19.1M before Steam's cut	$14.99	45k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Pixel GraphicsStory Rich
Super Meat Boy 2010	Est. copies ≈ 2.5M–4.0M 3.2x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $10.2M–$27.5M after Steam's cut $18.6M–$42.3M before Steam's cut	$14.99	39k reviews Very Positive	Precision Platformer Platformer
BlazBlue Entropy Effect 2024	Est. copies ≈ 908k–1.5M 3.0x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.0M–$13.4M after Steam's cut $9.1M–$20.6M before Steam's cut	$19.99	37k reviews Very Positive	Action RoguelikeAction-Adventure
Jump King 2019	Est. copies ≈ 387k–629k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before Steam's cut	$12.99	13k reviews Very Positive	Psychological HorrorDifficult
Celeste 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.5M–7.4M 12x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $24.9M–$67.0M after Steam's cut $45.3M–$103.1M before Steam's cut	$19.99	149k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Precision PlatformerDifficult
Friends vs Friends 2023	Est. copies ≈ 369k–600k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.0M–$2.7M after Steam's cut $1.8M–$4.2M before Steam's cut	$9.99	15k reviews Very Positive	Card GameAction
Deepest Sword 2021	Est. copies ≈ 271k–441k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue Free	Free	11k reviews Very Positive	Pixel Graphics2D Platformer