How much revenue did No Man's Sky make?

$284.5M–$764.9M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did No Man's Sky sell?

Q: How many copies did No Man's Sky sell?

17.2M to 28.0M copies, based on its 415k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 17.2M–28.0M; $284.5M–$764.9M after Steam's cut $517.2M–$1176.7M before the cut; from 415k 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 No Man's Sky out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including No Man's Sky's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 2.1M–5.2M

best case 5.3M (ASTRONEER)

Games like No Man's Sky

The middle of these games

≈ 2.1M–5.2M copies

≈ $20.4M–$39.1M after Steam's cut

from ~73k 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: ASTRONEER at ≈ 4.0M–6.5M copies, ≈ $33.0M–$88.8M after Steam's cut.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 16k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 8k to 32k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Open World Survival Craft (7 of 8) and Survival (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Open World + Open World Survival Craft, priced around $30.
The era: The games you compared span 2016 to 2024, and 1 of your 8 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 52 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
The Planet Crafter 2024	Est. copies ≈ 1.8M–2.9M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $12.0M–$32.2M after Steam's cut $21.7M–$49.5M before the cut	$23.99	73k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Open World Survival CraftBase-Building
Breathedge 2021	Est. copies ≈ 442k–718k too small to compare SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.0M–$8.2M after Steam's cut $5.5M–$12.6M before the cut	$24.99	18k reviews Very Positive	Open World Survival CraftSpace
Empyrion - Galactic Survival 2020	Est. copies ≈ 853k–1.4M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $4.7M–$12.6M after Steam's cut $8.5M–$19.4M before the cut	$19.99	34k reviews Mostly Positive	Simulation Co-op
Stormworks: Build and Rescue 2020	Est. copies ≈ 1.5M–2.4M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $10.2M–$27.4M after Steam's cut $18.5M–$42.2M before the cut	$24.99	60k reviews Very Positive	SandboxBase-Building
Starbound 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.1M–8.3M 1.7x vs typical 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
ASTRONEER 2019	Est. copies ≈ 4.0M–6.5M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $33.0M–$88.8M after Steam's cut $60.1M–$136.6M before the cut	$29.99	139k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerOpen World
ICARUS 2021	Est. copies ≈ 1.7M–2.7M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $16.1M–$43.4M after Steam's cut $29.3M–$66.7M before the cut	$34.99	68k reviews Mostly Positive	SurvivalOpen World Survival Craft
Space Engineers 2019	Est. copies ≈ 3.9M–6.3M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $21.3M–$57.2M after Steam's cut $38.7M–$88.0M before the cut	$19.99	134k reviews Very Positive	SpaceSandbox