How much revenue did Cruelty Squad make?

$3.4M–$9.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Cruelty Squad sell?

Q: How many copies did Cruelty Squad sell?

616k to 1.0M copies, based on its 25k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 616k–1.0M; $3.4M–$9.1M after Steam's cut $6.2M–$14.0M before the cut; from 25k reviews (Overwhelmingly 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 Cruelty Squad out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Cruelty Squad's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 50k–91k

best case 130k (Golden Light)

Games like Cruelty Squad

The middle of these games

≈ 50k–91k copies

≈ $185k–$613k after Steam's cut

from ~2k reviews

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

3 of your 8 similar games are hits.

No genre covers most of your similar games. The closest is Immersive Sim (3 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: Golden Light at ≈ 99k–161k copies, ≈ $545k–$1.5M after Steam's cut.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 3 reviews in their first month; the spread ran 1 to 1k.

Under about 100 in month one, almost nothing recovers.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Immersive Sim (3 of 8) and Life Sim (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Stealth + Procedural Generation, priced around $20.
The era: Only 2 of your 8 similar games shipped in the last two years. That says more about your picks than about the market, so add newer similar games to read the timing.

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 of about 31, 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
Golden Light 2022	Est. copies ≈ 99k–161k 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $545k–$1.5M after Steam's cut $992k–$2.3M before the cut	$19.99	4k reviews Very Positive	3DAction
You Are Weak 2021	Est. copies ≈ 223–363 too small to compare SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $183–$494 after Steam's cut $333–$760 before the cut	$2.99	9 reviews 9 user reviews	ExperimentalSingleplayer
USD Clicker 2024	Est. copies ≈ 99–161 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $27–$73 after Steam's cut $49–$112 before the cut	$0.99	4 reviews 4 user reviews	ClickerIdler
Waste It 2022	Est. copies ≈ 149–242 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $4k–$11k after Steam's cut $7k–$17k before the cut	$99.99	6 reviews 6 user reviews	SandboxLife Sim
Trolley Problem, Inc. 2022	Est. copies ≈ 39k–64k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $119k–$320k after Steam's cut $216k–$492k before the cut	$10.99	2k reviews Mixed	Choices MatterIndie
accelerating hotkeys 2022	Est. copies ≈ 25–40 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $34–$91 after Steam's cut $62–$140 before the cut	$4.99	1 reviews 1 user reviews	TypingTime Management
FACEMINER 2025	Est. copies ≈ 37k–61k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $82k–$221k after Steam's cut $149k–$340k before the cut	$7.99	2k reviews Very Positive	ClickerSimulation
Why pizza? 2021	Est. copies ≈ 322–524 too small to compare SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $2k–$5k after Steam's cut $3k–$7k before the cut	$18.99	13 reviews Mixed	Precision PlatformerSide Scroller