How much revenue did Dwarf Fortress make?

$6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Dwarf Fortress sell?

Q: How many copies did Dwarf Fortress sell?

783k to 1.3M copies, based on its 32k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 783k–1.3M; $6.5M–$17.4M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.7M 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 Dwarf Fortress and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Dwarf Fortress's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 42k–114k

best case 1.3M (Craft The World)

Games like Dwarf Fortress

A typical game among these

≈ 42k–114k copies

≈ $289k–$663k after Steam's cut

from ~2k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

6 of the 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Craft The World at ≈ 961k–1.6M copies, ≈ $5.0M–$13.5M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 435 reviews in their first month; the range was 163 to 1k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Colony Sim (5 of 8) and Dwarf (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Dwarf + Colony Sim, priced around $19.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2011 to 2025, and 3 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 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
Craft The World 2014	Est. copies ≈ 961k–1.6M 10x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.0M–$13.5M after Steam's cut $9.1M–$20.8M before Steam's cut	$18.99	17k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Diggles: The Myth of Fenris 2020	Est. copies ≈ 16k–26k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $45k–$120k after Steam's cut $81k–$185k before Steam's cut	$9.99	656 reviews Very Positive	StrategyAdventure
Mountaincore 2025	Est. copies ≈ 7k–11k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue Free	Free	268 reviews Mixed	StrategySimulation
Noble Fates 2021	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $253k–$681k after Steam's cut $460k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$24.99	1k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessColony Sim
Regions Of Ruin 2018	Est. copies ≈ 141k–230k 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $466k–$1.3M after Steam's cut $848k–$1.9M before Steam's cut	$11.99	5k reviews Very Positive	RPGAdventure
Dwarfs!? 2011	Est. copies ≈ 68k–111k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $188k–$505k after Steam's cut $341k–$776k before Steam's cut	$9.99	1k reviews Mostly Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Gnomes 2025	Est. copies ≈ 46k–74k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $126k–$338k after Steam's cut $229k–$520k before Steam's cut	$9.99	2k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Tower DefenseTurn-Based
KeeperRL 2024	Est. copies ≈ 45k–73k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $247k–$665k after Steam's cut $450k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	UndergroundSimulation