How much revenue did BioShock™ make?

$11.2M–$30.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did BioShock™ sell?

Q: How many copies did BioShock™ sell?

2.0M to 3.3M copies, based on its 32k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2.0M–3.3M; $11.2M–$30.1M after Steam's cut $20.4M–$46.3M before Steam's cut; from 32k 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 BioShock™ and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including BioShock™'s, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 27.4M–35.8M

best case 40.7M (Wallpaper Engine)

Games like BioShock™

A typical game among these

≈ 27.4M–35.8M copies

≈ $180.1M–$524.1M after Steam's cut

from ~733k 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: Wallpaper Engine at ≈ 31.0M–50.3M copies, ≈ $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Open World (5 of 8) and First-Person (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Mature + Utilities, priced around $5.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 to 2022, 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
Portal 2 2011	Est. copies ≈ 29.5M–48.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $81.1M–$218.1M after Steam's cut $147.5M–$335.6M before Steam's cut	$9.99	467k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Platformer Puzzle
The Forest 2018	Est. copies ≈ 20.8M–33.7M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $114.2M–$306.9M after Steam's cut $207.5M–$472.2M before Steam's cut	$19.99	683k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 31.0M–50.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $42.5M–$114.3M after Steam's cut $77.3M–$175.9M before Steam's cut	$4.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MatureUtilities
Red Dead Redemption 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 26.6M–43.2M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $438.4M–$1178.6M after Steam's cut $797.0M–$1813.3M before Steam's cut	$59.99	923k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldStory Rich
Fallout 4 2015	Est. copies ≈ 21.0M–34.1M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $115.2M–$309.7M after Steam's cut $209.4M–$476.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	429k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldPost-apocalyptic
Cyberpunk 2077 2020	Est. copies ≈ 24.4M–39.6M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $402.0M–$1080.8M after Steam's cut $730.9M–$1662.7M before Steam's cut	$59.99	983k reviews Very Positive	CyberpunkOpen World
Dying Light 2015	Est. copies ≈ 24.2M–39.3M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $166.4M–$447.4M after Steam's cut $302.5M–$688.3M before Steam's cut	$24.99	496k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ZombiesSurvival Horror
Call of Duty® 2022	Est. copies ≈ 19.4M–31.5M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	782k reviews Mixed	FPSMultiplayer