How much revenue did Rust make?

$466.2M–$1253.5M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Rust sell?

Q: How many copies did Rust sell?

42.4M to 68.9M copies, based on its 1.4M Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 42.4M–68.9M; $466.2M–$1253.5M after Steam's cut $847.6M–$1928.4M before the cut; from 1.4M 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 Rust out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Rust's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 27.6M–68.3M

best case 128.5M (Terraria)

Games like Rust

The middle of these games

≈ 27.6M–68.3M copies

≈ $204.8M–$453.8M after Steam's cut

from ~815k 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: Terraria at ≈ 97.9M–159.1M copies, ≈ $269.0M–$723.1M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Crafting (5 of 8) and Survival (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World Survival Craft + Sandbox, priced around $10.
The era: The games you compared span 2007 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 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
Terraria 2011	Est. copies ≈ 97.9M–159.1M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $269.0M–$723.1M after Steam's cut $489.0M–$1112.5M before the cut	$9.99	1.5M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSandbox
Unturned 2017	Est. copies ≈ 19.4M–31.6M SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	565k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlaySurvival
Team Fortress 2 2007	Est. copies ≈ 79.0M–128.3M 1.5x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.2M reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayHero Shooter
Baldur's Gate 3 2023	Est. copies ≈ 21.2M–34.4M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $349.3M–$939.1M after Steam's cut $635.1M–$1444.8M before the cut	$59.99	854k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	RPGCharacter Customization
The Forest 2018	Est. copies ≈ 20.7M–33.6M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $113.8M–$305.9M after Steam's cut $206.9M–$470.7M before the cut	$19.99	681k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
ARK: Survival Evolved 2017	Est. copies ≈ 26.7M–43.4M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $110.1M–$296.0M after Steam's cut $200.2M–$455.4M before the cut	$14.99	776k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSurvival
Don't Starve Together 2016	Est. copies ≈ 22.6M–36.7M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $93.0M–$250.0M after Steam's cut $169.0M–$384.6M before the cut	$14.99	542k reviews Very Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.0M–69.9M 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