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How many copies did School Years sell?

Estimated copies sold
≈ 43k–70k
$142k–$382k after Steam's cut $259k–$588k before the cut
from 1k reviews (Very 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 School Years out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including School Years's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 1.6M–1.9M
best case 10.2M (Doki Doki Literature Club!)
Games like School Years

The middle of these games

≈ 1.6M–1.9M copies

≈ $5.8M–$10.6M after Steam's cut

from ~45k 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.

Best case: Doki Doki Literature Club! at ≈ 7.8M–12.7M copies. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What it took to get here
About half the games that made it here had over 7k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 7k to 27k.
The genre you'd be entering
Your set
Your set clusters on Anime (6 of 8) and Visual Novel (6 of 8).
The winners
Winners here lead with Psychological Horror + Visual Novel. The breakout hits carry Free to Play + Horror + Dark; a typical game here doesn't.
The era
The games you compared span 2014 to 2023, 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 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

Doki Doki Literature Club!
2017
Est. copies
≈ 7.8M–12.7M
5.1x vs typical
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
Free
Free
227k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD
2022
Est. copies
≈ 1.4M–2.3M
SteamSpy 1M–2M
Est. revenue
$6.3M–$16.9M after Steam's cut $11.4M–$26.0M before the cut
$15.99
58k reviews
Very Positive
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
2021
Est. copies
≈ 798k–1.3M
SteamSpy 500k–1M
Est. revenue
$3.3M–$8.8M after Steam's cut $6.0M–$13.6M before the cut
$14.99
32k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Love Is All Around
2023
Est. copies
≈ 1.1M–1.8M
SteamSpy 1M–2M
Est. revenue
$3.1M–$8.4M after Steam's cut $5.7M–$12.9M before the cut
$9.99
46k reviews
Very Positive
Dating SimSexual Content
NEKOPARA Vol. 1
2014
Est. copies
≈ 1.5M–2.5M
SteamSpy 500k–1M
Est. revenue
$4.2M–$11.3M after Steam's cut $7.7M–$17.5M before the cut
$9.99
27k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
HentaiAnime
Life is Strange 2
2018
Est. copies
≈ 1.2M–2.0M
SteamSpy 10M–20M
Est. revenue
Free
Free
41k reviews
Very Positive
Choices MatterStory Rich
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
2019
Est. copies
≈ 1.3M–2.1M
SteamSpy 1M–2M
Est. revenue
$10.7M–$28.6M after Steam's cut $19.4M–$44.1M before the cut
$29.99
45k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
DetectiveVisual Novel
Mirror
2018
Est. copies
≈ 2.6M–4.2M
1.9x vs typical
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.8M before the cut
$1.99
84k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Sexual ContentNudity

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