How much revenue did Absence of Light make?

$1k–$3k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Absence of Light sell?

Q: How many copies did Absence of Light sell?

471 to 766 copies, based on its 19 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 471–766; $1k–$3k after Steam's cut $2k–$5k before the cut; from 19 reviews (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 Absence of Light out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Absence of Light's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 7k–26k

best case 25.3M (Hollow Knight)

Games like Absence of Light

The middle of these games

≈ 7k–26k copies

≈ $3k–$204k after Steam's cut

from ~489 reviews

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

2 of your 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Hollow Knight at ≈ 19.2M–31.3M copies, ≈ $79.3M–$213.3M 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 182 reviews in their first month; the spread ran 2 to 2k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Metroidvania (8 of 8) and Exploration (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Metroidvania + Souls-like, priced around $15. The breakout hits carry Souls-like + Great Soundtrack + Difficult; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: 4 of your 8 similar games shipped in the last two years, so this niche is actively shipping.

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).

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The Mobius Machine 2024	Est. copies ≈ 12k–20k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue $67k–$179k after Steam's cut $121k–$276k before the cut	$19.99	489 reviews Very Positive	MetroidvaniaExploration
Hollow Knight 2017	Est. copies ≈ 19.2M–31.3M 1144x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $79.3M–$213.3M after Steam's cut $144.2M–$328.1M before the cut	$14.99	559k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Metroidvania Souls-like
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