How much revenue did Nuclear Option make?

$1.5M–$4.0M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Nuclear Option sell?

Q: How many copies did Nuclear Option sell?

268k to 435k copies, based on its 11k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 268k–435k; $1.5M–$4.0M after Steam's cut $2.7M–$6.1M before the cut; from 11k 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 Nuclear Option out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Nuclear Option's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 790k–1.6M

best case 26.7M (BeamNG.drive)

Games like Nuclear Option

The middle of these games

≈ 790k–1.6M copies

≈ $10.4M–$14.7M after Steam's cut

from ~30k 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: BeamNG.drive at ≈ 20.3M–33.0M copies, ≈ $139.6M–$375.3M 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 20k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 6k to 32k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Sandbox (5 of 8) and Flight (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Driving, priced around $25. The breakout hits carry Driving + Automobile Sim + Realistic; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2015 to 2023, 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 31 for the most recent game here to about 61 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
Besiege 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.3M–2.1M 1.8x 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
X4: Foundations 2018	Est. copies ≈ 911k–1.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.5M–$33.7M after Steam's cut $22.8M–$51.8M before the cut	$49.99	30k reviews Mostly Positive	Space SimSimulation
Century: Age of Ashes 2021	Est. copies ≈ 455k–739k SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	18k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayDragons
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
BeamNG.drive 2015	Est. copies ≈ 20.3M–33.0M 14x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $139.6M–$375.3M after Steam's cut $253.8M–$577.4M before the cut	$24.99	416k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SimulationDriving
Trailmakers 2019	Est. copies ≈ 1.1M–1.8M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $7.7M–$20.6M after Steam's cut $13.9M–$31.6M before the cut	$24.99	39k reviews Very Positive	SpaceAction
Brick Rigs 2023	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M 2.0x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $8.1M–$21.7M after Steam's cut $14.7M–$33.4M before the cut	$19.99	59k reviews Very Positive	SandboxDestruction
Avorion 2020	Est. copies ≈ 361k–586k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.5M–$6.7M after Steam's cut $4.5M–$10.3M before the cut	$24.99	15k reviews Very Positive	ExplorationSandbox