How much revenue did Telling Lies make?

$210k–$564k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Telling Lies sell?

Q: How many copies did Telling Lies sell?

38k to 62k copies, based on its 1k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 38k–62k; $210k–$564k after Steam's cut $381k–$868k before Steam's cut; from 1k 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 Telling Lies and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Telling Lies's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 99k–260k

best case 668k (Her Story)

Games like Telling Lies

A typical game among these

≈ 99k–260k copies

≈ $337k–$1.3M after Steam's cut

from ~4k 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: Her Story at ≈ 509k–827k copies, ≈ $1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 538 reviews in their first month; the range was 331 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Point & Click (5 of 8) and Detective (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Investigation + Typing, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 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 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
SIMULACRA 2 2020	Est. copies ≈ 42k–68k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $92k–$248k after Steam's cut $167k–$381k before Steam's cut	$7.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Horror Immersive Sim
The Complex 2020	Est. copies ≈ 89k–144k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $365k–$982k after Steam's cut $664k–$1.5M before Steam's cut	$14.99	4k reviews Mostly Positive	AdventureFMV
SIMULACRA 2017	Est. copies ≈ 161k–262k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $221k–$595k after Steam's cut $402k–$915k before Steam's cut	$4.99	5k reviews Very Positive	HorrorDetective
The Operator 2024	Est. copies ≈ 220k–358k 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $848k–$2.3M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.5M before Steam's cut	$13.99	9k reviews Very Positive	DetectiveInvestigation
Erica 2021	Est. copies ≈ 44k–71k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $144k–$388k after Steam's cut $263k–$597k before Steam's cut	$11.99	2k reviews Mostly Positive	Choose Your Own AdventureFMV
A Date in the Park 2016	Est. copies ≈ 86k–139k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue Free	Free	2k reviews Very Positive	ExplorationPoint & Click
Her Story 2015	Est. copies ≈ 509k–827k 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.8M before Steam's cut	$9.99	10k reviews Very Positive	InvestigationTyping
Stories Untold 2017	Est. copies ≈ 190k–309k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $523k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $950k–$2.2M before Steam's cut	$9.99	6k reviews Very Positive	AdventureText-Based