How much revenue did Hyper Light Drifter make?

$4.4M–$11.8M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Hyper Light Drifter sell?

Q: How many copies did Hyper Light Drifter sell?

796k to 1.3M copies, based on its 19k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 796k–1.3M; $4.4M–$11.8M after Steam's cut $8.0M–$18.1M before the cut; from 19k 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 Hyper Light Drifter out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Hyper Light Drifter's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 6.5M–16.2M

best case 56.5M (Stardew Valley)

Games like Hyper Light Drifter

The middle of these games

≈ 6.5M–16.2M copies

≈ $40.4M–$147.3M after Steam's cut

from ~165k 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.

No genre covers most of your similar games. The closest is Action Roguelike (2 of 8), so the genre you lead with is still undecided.

Of the 416 indie games that passed 1,000 reviews in 2022, 11.8% were novel genre mixes and 88.2% stuck to an established genre. Published indie market research.

Best case: Stardew Valley at ≈ 43.0M–69.9M copies, ≈ $177.4M–$476.9M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Action Roguelike (2 of 8) and Rogue-like (2 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Farming Sim + Life Sim, priced around $15.
The era: The games you compared span 2012 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
RimWorld 2018	Est. copies ≈ 7.5M–12.1M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $71.8M–$193.1M after Steam's cut $130.6M–$297.1M before the cut	$34.99	246k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Colony SimBase-Building
OMORI 2020	Est. copies ≈ 2.2M–3.6M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.0M–$32.4M after Steam's cut $21.9M–$49.8M before the cut	$19.99	88k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Story Rich
Hotline Miami 2012	Est. copies ≈ 8.1M–13.1M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $22.2M–$59.6M after Steam's cut $40.3M–$91.7M before the cut	$9.99	128k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Great SoundtrackViolent
Dead Cells 2018	Est. copies ≈ 5.6M–9.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $38.2M–$102.8M after Steam's cut $69.5M–$158.2M before the cut	$24.99	183k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	AdventureAction Roguelike
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 2014	Est. copies ≈ 25.2M–41.0M 2.7x vs typical SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $104.0M–$279.6M after Steam's cut $189.1M–$430.1M before the cut	$14.99	450k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Action RoguelikeRogue-like
Starbound 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.1M–$56.8M after Steam's cut $38.4M–$87.4M before the cut	$14.99	123k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSandbox
Stardew Valley 2016	Est. copies ≈ 43.0M–69.9M 6.3x vs typical 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
Celeste 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.4M–7.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $24.5M–$65.8M after Steam's cut $44.5M–$101.2M before the cut	$19.99	146k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Precision PlatformerDifficult