How much revenue did PAYDAY 2 make?

$117.1M–$314.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did PAYDAY 2 sell?

Q: How many copies did PAYDAY 2 sell?

42.6M to 69.2M copies, based on its 674k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 42.6M–69.2M; $117.1M–$314.7M after Steam's cut $212.8M–$484.2M before the cut; from 674k 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 PAYDAY 2 out and predicted the genre from its 6 similar games. Every figure here, including PAYDAY 2's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 79.6M–100.0M

best case 813.7M (Counter-Strike 2)

Games like PAYDAY 2

The middle of these games

≈ 79.6M–100.0M copies

≈ $468.4M–$729.4M after Steam's cut

from ~1.3M reviews

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

All 6 of your similar games are hits.

Best case: Counter-Strike 2 at ≈ 620.0M–1007.5M copies. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on FPS (5 of 6) and Shooter (5 of 6).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Shooter. The breakout hits carry Action + Battle Royale + Third-Person Shooter; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2007 to 2018, 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 38 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
Counter-Strike 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 620.0M–1007.5M 7.4x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	9.8M reviews Very Positive	FPSShooter
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 2017	Est. copies ≈ 94.5M–153.6M 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	2.7M reviews Mixed	SurvivalShooter
Rust 2018	Est. copies ≈ 42.4M–68.9M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $466.2M–$1253.5M after Steam's cut $847.6M–$1928.4M before the cut	$39.99	1.4M reviews Very Positive	SurvivalCrafting
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 2015	Est. copies ≈ 75.3M–122.4M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.5M reviews Very Positive	FPSPvP
Left 4 Dead 2 2009	Est. copies ≈ 66.7M–108.4M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue $183.2M–$492.6M after Steam's cut $333.1M–$757.9M before the cut	$9.99	1.1M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ZombiesCo-op
Team Fortress 2 2007	Est. copies ≈ 79.0M–128.3M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.2M reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayHero Shooter