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How many copies did Yoku's Island Express sell?

Estimated copies sold
≈ 161k–262k
$887k–$2.4M after Steam's cut $1.6M–$3.7M before the cut
from 5k 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 Yoku's Island Express out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Yoku's Island Express's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 4.4M–6.9M
best case 25.3M (Hollow Knight)
Games like Yoku's Island Express

The middle of these games

≈ 4.4M–6.9M copies

≈ $42.5M–$63.1M after Steam's cut

from ~146k 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 Platformer (4 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: Hollow Knight at ≈ 19.2M–31.3M copies, ≈ $79.3M–$213.3M after Steam's cut. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering
Your set
Your set clusters on Platformer (4 of 8) and Metroidvania (3 of 8).
The winners
Winners here lead with Metroidvania + Souls-like, priced around $15. The breakout hits carry 2D + Difficult + Metroidvania; a typical game here doesn't.
The era
The games you compared span 2010 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

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™
2019
Est. copies
≈ 5.0M–8.2M
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$55.4M–$149.0M after Steam's cut $100.7M–$229.2M before the cut
$39.99
175k reviews
Very Positive
Action-AdventureSouls-like
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
2010
Est. copies
≈ 5.5M–8.9M
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$30.2M–$81.3M after Steam's cut $55.0M–$125.1M before the cut
$19.99
87k reviews
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ActionStealth
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
Hollow Knight
2017
Est. copies
≈ 19.2M–31.3M
3.8x vs typical
SteamSpy 5M–10M
Est. revenue
$79.3M–$213.3M after Steam's cut $144.2M–$328.1M before the cut
$14.99
559k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
2020
Est. copies
≈ 3.6M–5.9M
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$29.9M–$80.3M after Steam's cut $54.3M–$123.5M before the cut
$29.99
146k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
BeautifulMetroidvania
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
GRIS
2018
Est. copies
≈ 2.9M–4.8M
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$12.1M–$32.4M after Steam's cut $21.9M–$49.9M before the cut
$14.99
96k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
BeautifulAtmospheric
INSIDE
2016
Est. copies
≈ 3.1M–5.1M
SteamSpy 2M–5M
Est. revenue
$21.6M–$58.2M after Steam's cut $39.4M–$89.5M before the cut
$24.99
76k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
2.5DPuzzle-Platformer

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