How much revenue did Waves of Steel make?

$58k–$156k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Waves of Steel sell?

Q: How many copies did Waves of Steel sell?

11k to 17k copies, based on its 426 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 11k–17k; $58k–$156k after Steam's cut $106k–$240k before the cut; from 426 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 Waves of Steel out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Waves of Steel's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 767k–3.1M

best case 64.7M (War Thunder)

Games like Waves of Steel

The middle of these games

≈ 767k–3.1M copies

≈ $4.9M–$10.2M after Steam's cut

from ~28k 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.

No genre covers most of your similar games. The closest is Simulation (4 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: War Thunder at ≈ 49.3M–80.1M copies.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 13k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 7k to 31k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Simulation (4 of 8) and War (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Vehicular Combat.
The era: The games you compared span 2013 to 2024, and 1 of your 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
UBOAT 2024	Est. copies ≈ 673k–1.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.6M–$14.9M after Steam's cut $10.1M–$23.0M before the cut	$29.99	27k reviews Very Positive	SimulationWorld War II
Holdfast: Nations At War 2020	Est. copies ≈ 730k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.0M–$10.8M after Steam's cut $7.3M–$16.6M before the cut	$19.99	29k reviews Very Positive	ShooterFPS
From the Depths 2020	Est. copies ≈ 318k–516k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.0M before the cut	$24.99	13k reviews Very Positive	BuildingNaval Combat
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 317k–515k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.7M–$4.7M after Steam's cut $3.2M–$7.2M before the cut	$19.99	11k reviews Mostly Positive	SpaceStrategy
Besiege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $5.4M–$14.6M after Steam's cut $9.9M–$22.5M before the cut	$14.99	53k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationSandbox
World of Warships 2017	Est. copies ≈ 5.4M–8.7M 5.5x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	156k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayNaval Combat
VTOL VR 2017	Est. copies ≈ 749k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.2M–$16.6M after Steam's cut $11.2M–$25.5M before the cut	$29.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FlightVR
War Thunder 2013	Est. copies ≈ 49.3M–80.1M 28x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	780k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlaySimulation