How much revenue did Research Story make?

$35k–$93k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Research Story sell?

Q: How many copies did Research Story sell?

8k to 14k copies, based on its 340 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 8k–14k; $35k–$93k after Steam's cut $63k–$144k before the cut; from 340 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 Research Story out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Research Story's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 707k–1.0M

best case 56.5M (Stardew Valley)

Games like Research Story

The middle of these games

≈ 707k–1.0M copies

≈ $5.0M–$12.5M after Steam's cut

from ~27k 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: Stardew Valley at ≈ 43.0M–69.9M copies, ≈ $177.4M–$476.9M after Steam's cut. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 9k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 533 to 34k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Life Sim (8 of 8) and Farming Sim (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Farming Sim + Life Sim, priced around $15. The breakout hits carry Multiplayer + Agriculture + Pixel Graphics; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2016 to 2026, 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 52 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
Coral Island 2023	Est. copies ≈ 682k–1.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.6M–$15.1M after Steam's cut $10.2M–$23.3M before the cut	$29.99	27k reviews Very Positive	Farming SimLife Sim
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.0M–69.9M 38x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $177.4M–$476.9M after Steam's cut $322.5M–$733.6M before the cut	$14.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Farming SimPixel Graphics
Littlewood 2020	Est. copies ≈ 169k–275k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $698k–$1.9M after Steam's cut $1.3M–$2.9M before the cut	$14.99	7k reviews Very Positive	Pixel GraphicsLife Sim
Travellers Rest 2020	Est. copies ≈ 446k–725k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.2M–$5.9M after Steam's cut $4.0M–$9.1M before the cut	$17.99	18k reviews Very Positive	Life SimPixel Graphics
Fields of Mistria 2026	Est. copies ≈ 834k–1.4M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $3.2M–$8.6M after Steam's cut $5.8M–$13.3M before the cut	$13.99	34k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Early AccessFarming Sim
My Time at Sandrock 2023	Est. copies ≈ 718k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $7.9M–$21.2M after Steam's cut $14.4M–$32.7M before the cut	$39.99	29k reviews Very Positive	Life SimBuilding
My Time at Portia 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 1.6x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.5M–$28.3M after Steam's cut $19.1M–$43.5M before the cut	$29.99	44k reviews Very Positive	Life SimRPG
Sun Haven 2023	Est. copies ≈ 630k–1.0M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.3M–$11.6M after Steam's cut $7.9M–$17.9M before the cut	$24.99	25k reviews Very Positive	Farming SimPixel Graphics