How much revenue did Subnautica: Below Zero make?

$22.2M–$59.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Subnautica: Below Zero sell?

Q: How many copies did Subnautica: Below Zero sell?

2.7M to 4.4M copies, based on its 109k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2.7M–4.4M; $22.2M–$59.7M after Steam's cut $40.4M–$91.8M before Steam's cut; from 109k 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 Subnautica: Below Zero and predicted how it would do from its 5 similar games. Every figure here, including Subnautica: Below Zero's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 282k–12.3M

best case 15.2M (Subnautica)

Games like Subnautica: Below Zero

A typical game among these

≈ 282k–12.3M copies

≈ $4.9M–$115.5M after Steam's cut

from ~24k 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 5 of the similar games are hits.

Best case: Subnautica at ≈ 11.6M–18.8M copies, ≈ $95.5M–$256.7M after Steam's cut.

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 2k to 182k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Crafting (5 of 5) and Open World Survival Craft (5 of 5).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World Survival Craft + Survival, priced around $30.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2014 to 2024, and 1 of the 5 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 70 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
Subnautica 2018	Est. copies ≈ 11.6M–18.8M 16x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $95.5M–$256.7M after Steam's cut $173.6M–$395.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	381k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Raft 2022	Est. copies ≈ 9.4M–15.3M 16x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $51.7M–$139.0M after Steam's cut $94.0M–$213.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	379k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalMultiplayer
Sunkenland 2023	Est. copies ≈ 595k–967k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $3.3M–$8.8M after Steam's cut $5.9M–$13.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	24k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessOpen World Survival Craft
FarSky 2014	Est. copies ≈ 215k–349k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Mostly Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
Survival: Fountain of Youth 2024	Est. copies ≈ 112k–183k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $866k–$2.3M after Steam's cut $1.6M–$3.6M before Steam's cut	$27.99	5k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft