How much revenue did Grand Theft Auto III make?

Grand Theft Auto III is free to play, so there is no copy-sales revenue to estimate.

How many copies did Grand Theft Auto III sell?

Q: How many copies did Grand Theft Auto III sell?

941k to 1.5M copies, based on its 15k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 941k–1.5M; from 15k 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 Grand Theft Auto III out and predicted the genre from its 7 similar games. Every figure here, including Grand Theft Auto III's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 166k–1.4M

best case 6.9M (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)

Games like Grand Theft Auto III

The middle of these games

≈ 166k–1.4M copies

≈ $314k–$531k after Steam's cut

from ~4k reviews

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

6 of your 7 similar games are hits.

Best case: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at ≈ 5.3M–8.6M copies.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Automobile Sim (7 of 7) and Classic (6 of 7).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World + Crime.
The era: The games you compared span 2008 to 2014, 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 70 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
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 2008	Est. copies ≈ 1.9M–3.1M 8.2x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	30k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction
Crazy Taxi 2011	Est. copies ≈ 229k–373k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue Free	Free	4k reviews Very Positive	RacingArcade
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2008	Est. copies ≈ 5.3M–8.6M 23x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	83k reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction
Driver® Parallel Lines 2009	Est. copies ≈ 99k–161k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $271k–$730k after Steam's cut $493k–$1.1M before the cut	$9.99	2k reviews Very Positive	RacingOpen World
Hard Truck Apocalypse / Ex Machina 2014	Est. copies ≈ 154k–250k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $338k–$909k after Steam's cut $615k–$1.4M before the cut	$7.99	3k reviews Very Positive	Post-apocalypticAutomobile Sim
Hard Truck Apocalypse: Rise Of Clans / Ex Machina: Meridian 113 2014	Est. copies ≈ 46k–75k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $76k–$205k after Steam's cut $138k–$315k before the cut	$5.99	825 reviews Mostly Positive	Automobile SimAction
Street Racing Syndicate 2014	Est. copies ≈ 245k–399k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $202k–$542k after Steam's cut $367k–$834k before the cut	$2.99	4k reviews Very Positive	RacingOpen World