How much revenue did Observation make?

$885k–$2.4M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Observation sell?

Q: How many copies did Observation sell?

129k to 209k copies, based on its 5k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 129k–209k; $885k–$2.4M after Steam's cut $1.6M–$3.7M before the cut; from 5k reviews (Mostly Positive)

A labeled estimate from the public review count (adjusted for release year), not exact sales. Owner data cross-checked with SteamSpy.

Does this actually work?

We left Observation out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Observation's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 8.5M–17.0M

best case 35.1M (ARK: Survival Evolved)

Games like Observation

The middle of these games

≈ 8.5M–17.0M copies

≈ $103.6M–$189.5M after Steam's cut

from ~329k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019’s Steam releases earned about $34k gross, so plan for that or less.

All 8 of your similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of your similar games. The closest is Crafting (4 of 8), so the genre you lead with is still undecided.

Of the 416 indie games that passed 1,000 reviews in 2022, 11.8% were novel genre mixes and 88.2% stuck to an established genre. Published indie market research.

Best case: ARK: Survival Evolved at ≈ 26.7M–43.5M copies, ≈ $110.3M–$296.4M after Steam's cut.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 69k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 40k to 184k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Crafting (4 of 8) and Exploration (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World Survival Craft + Survival, priced around $15.
The era: The games you compared span 2016 to 2024, and 1 of your 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 52 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
SCP: Secret Laboratory 2017	Est. copies ≈ 8.1M–13.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue Free	Free	234k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayMultiplayer
No Man's Sky 2016	Est. copies ≈ 17.3M–28.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $285.6M–$767.9M after Steam's cut $519.3M–$1181.5M before the cut	$59.99	416k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldOpen World Survival Craft
Satisfactory 2024	Est. copies ≈ 6.9M–11.2M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $76.0M–$204.4M after Steam's cut $138.2M–$314.4M before the cut	$39.99	279k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Base-BuildingAutomation
ARK: Survival Evolved 2017	Est. copies ≈ 26.7M–43.5M 2.4x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $110.3M–$296.4M after Steam's cut $200.5M–$456.1M before the cut	$14.99	778k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Stray 2022	Est. copies ≈ 4.4M–7.2M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $36.3M–$97.6M after Steam's cut $66.0M–$150.1M before the cut	$29.99	177k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	CatsAdventure
Deep Rock Galactic 2020	Est. copies ≈ 9.4M–15.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $77.7M–$208.8M after Steam's cut $141.2M–$321.2M before the cut	$29.99	380k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	DwarfCo-op
Subnautica 2018	Est. copies ≈ 11.5M–18.8M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $95.2M–$256.0M after Steam's cut $173.1M–$393.9M before the cut	$29.99	380k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Starbound 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.1M–$56.8M after Steam's cut $38.4M–$87.5M before the cut	$14.99	123k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSandbox