How much revenue did Hack the Core make?

Hack the Core is free to play, so there is no copy-sales revenue to estimate.

How many copies did Hack the Core sell?

Q: How many copies did Hack the Core sell?

1k to 2k copies, based on its 45 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 1k–2k; from 45 reviews (Mostly 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 Hack the Core and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Hack the Core's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 497k–829k

best case 1.1M (Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!)

Games like Hack the Core

A typical game among these

≈ 497k–829k copies

≈ $1.7M–$3.6M after Steam's cut

from ~17k 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.

No genre covers most of these similar games. The closest is Story Rich (4 of 8), so its genre is hard to place.

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: Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! at ≈ 813k–1.3M copies, ≈ $3.4M–$9.0M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 2k reviews in their first month; the range was 2k to 7k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Story Rich (4 of 8) and Choices Matter (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Psychological Horror + Visual Novel, priced around $15.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2015 to 2021, 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 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
Emily is Away 2015	Est. copies ≈ 1.6M–2.6M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	32k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayStory Rich
60 Seconds! 2015	Est. copies ≈ 571k–927k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut $2.6M–$5.8M before Steam's cut	$8.99	12k reviews Very Positive	Turn-Based TacticsExploration
60 Seconds! Reatomized 2019	Est. copies ≈ 566k–919k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.6M–$4.2M after Steam's cut $2.8M–$6.4M before Steam's cut	$9.99	20k reviews Very Positive	2DChoose Your Own Adventure
Cultist Simulator 2018	Est. copies ≈ 433k–704k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.4M–$6.4M after Steam's cut $4.3M–$9.8M before Steam's cut	$19.99	14k reviews Mostly Positive	SimulationChoices Matter
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! 2021	Est. copies ≈ 813k–1.3M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $3.4M–$9.0M after Steam's cut $6.1M–$13.9M before Steam's cut	$14.99	33k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Visual Novel
Emily is Away Too 2017	Est. copies ≈ 215k–349k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $295k–$793k after Steam's cut $536k–$1.2M before Steam's cut	$4.99	6k reviews Very Positive	IndieSimulation
Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk 2021	Est. copies ≈ 556k–903k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before Steam's cut	$8.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Visual Novel
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp 2020	Est. copies ≈ 152k–248k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $502k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $913k–$2.1M before Steam's cut	$11.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Dating SimLGBTQ+