How much revenue did Quake II make?

$1.8M–$4.8M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Quake II sell?

Q: How many copies did Quake II sell?

654k to 1.1M copies, based on its 10k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 654k–1.1M; $1.8M–$4.8M after Steam's cut $3.3M–$7.4M before the cut; from 10k 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 Quake II out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Quake II's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 11.0M–17.8M

best case 23.1M (Half-Life 2)

Games like Quake II

The middle of these games

≈ 11.0M–17.8M copies

≈ $50.3M–$90.2M after Steam's cut

from ~210k 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: Half-Life 2 at ≈ 17.6M–28.6M copies, ≈ $48.3M–$130.0M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on First-Person (7 of 8) and FPS (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with FPS + Sci-fi, priced around $10.
The era: The games you compared span 1998 to 2020, 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 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 2000	Est. copies ≈ 16.5M–26.8M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $45.4M–$122.0M after Steam's cut $82.5M–$187.7M before the cut	$9.99	261k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ActionFPS
Half-Life 2 2004	Est. copies ≈ 17.6M–28.6M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $48.3M–$130.0M after Steam's cut $87.9M–$200.0M before the cut	$9.99	278k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSAction
POSTAL 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 8.7M–14.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $23.8M–$64.0M after Steam's cut $43.3M–$98.5M before the cut	$9.99	137k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ViolentDark Humor
Half-Life 1998	Est. copies ≈ 10.3M–16.8M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $28.4M–$76.4M after Steam's cut $51.6M–$117.5M before the cut	$9.99	164k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSClassic
DOOM 2016	Est. copies ≈ 9.2M–15.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $50.6M–$136.0M after Steam's cut $92.0M–$209.3M before the cut	$19.99	221k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSGore
Portal 2007	Est. copies ≈ 12.5M–20.4M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $34.5M–$92.6M after Steam's cut $62.6M–$142.5M before the cut	$9.99	198k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	PuzzlePuzzle-Platformer
Halo: The Master Chief Collection 2019	Est. copies ≈ 7.5M–12.3M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $83.0M–$223.2M after Steam's cut $150.9M–$343.3M before the cut	$39.99	262k reviews Very Positive	Great SoundtrackFPS
Black Mesa 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $19.7M–$53.0M after Steam's cut $35.8M–$81.5M before the cut	$19.99	145k reviews Very Positive	FPSRemake