How much revenue did The Talos Principle make?

$15.3M–$41.0M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did The Talos Principle sell?

Q: How many copies did The Talos Principle sell?

1.8M to 3.0M copies, based on its 33k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 1.8M–3.0M; $15.3M–$41.0M after Steam's cut $27.7M–$63.1M before the cut; from 33k 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 The Talos Principle out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including The Talos Principle's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 32.5M–48.2M

best case 813.7M (Counter-Strike 2)

Games like The Talos Principle

The middle of these games

≈ 32.5M–48.2M copies

≈ $210.7M–$404.2M after Steam's cut

from ~994k 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: Counter-Strike 2 at ≈ 620.0M–1007.5M copies. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 76k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 40k to 326k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on First-Person (5 of 8) and FPS (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World + Crime. The breakout hits carry Action + Crime + Automobile Sim; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2006 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
Grand Theft Auto V Legacy 2015	Est. copies ≈ 101.3M–164.6M 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	2.1M reviews Very Positive	Open WorldAction
Counter-Strike 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 620.0M–1007.5M 9.9x vs typical SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	9.8M reviews Very Positive	FPSShooter
Dead by Daylight 2016	Est. copies ≈ 38.7M–62.9M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $212.7M–$571.8M after Steam's cut $386.7M–$879.7M before the cut	$19.99	930k reviews Mostly Positive	HorrorMultiplayer
Garry's Mod 2006	Est. copies ≈ 79.8M–129.6M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $219.1M–$589.2M after Steam's cut $398.4M–$906.5M before the cut	$9.99	1.3M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	SandboxModdable
Apex Legends™ 2020	Est. copies ≈ 26.4M–43.0M SteamSpy 100M–200M	Est. revenue Free	Free	1.1M reviews Mixed	Free to PlayBattle Royale
Cyberpunk 2077 2020	Est. copies ≈ 24.2M–39.3M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $399.0M–$1072.8M after Steam's cut $725.5M–$1650.4M before the cut	$59.99	975k reviews Very Positive	CyberpunkOpen World
Phasmophobia 2020	Est. copies ≈ 20.8M–33.8M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $114.2M–$307.1M after Steam's cut $207.7M–$472.5M before the cut	$19.99	838k reviews Very Positive	HorrorOnline Co-Op
Wallpaper Engine 2018	Est. copies ≈ 30.8M–50.0M SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $42.2M–$113.5M after Steam's cut $76.8M–$174.6M before the cut	$4.99	1.0M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	MatureUtilities