How much revenue did The Sims™ 3 make?

$11.9M–$32.1M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did The Sims™ 3 sell?

Q: How many copies did The Sims™ 3 sell?

2.2M to 3.5M copies, based on its 34k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2.2M–3.5M; $11.9M–$32.1M after Steam's cut $21.7M–$49.3M before the cut; from 34k 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 The Sims™ 3 out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including The Sims™ 3's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 827k–942k

best case 6.5M (The Sims™ 4)

Games like The Sims™ 3

The middle of these games

≈ 827k–942k copies

≈ $10.4M–$14.6M after Steam's cut

from ~27k 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: The Sims™ 4 at ≈ 5.0M–8.0M 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 12k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 953 to 20k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Life Sim (8 of 8) and Character Customization (6 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Life Sim + Character Customization. The breakout hits carry Free to Play + Romance + Singleplayer; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2017 to 2025, 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 43 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 Sims™ 4 2020	Est. copies ≈ 5.0M–8.0M 7.3x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue Free	Free	200k reviews Very Positive	Life SimCharacter Customization
Coral Island 2023	Est. copies ≈ 682k–1.1M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.6M–$15.1M after Steam's cut $10.2M–$23.3M before the cut	$29.99	27k reviews Very Positive	Farming SimLife Sim
My Time at Sandrock 2023	Est. copies ≈ 718k–1.2M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $7.9M–$21.2M after Steam's cut $14.4M–$32.7M before the cut	$39.99	29k reviews Very Positive	Life SimBuilding
Nobody - The Turnaround 2022	Est. copies ≈ 355k–576k too small to compare SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	14k reviews Mixed	Early AccessLife Sim
Disney Dreamlight Valley 2023	Est. copies ≈ 612k–994k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $6.7M–$18.1M after Steam's cut $12.2M–$27.8M before the cut	$39.99	25k reviews Very Positive	RelaxingLife Sim
Youtubers Life 2017	Est. copies ≈ 530k–862k too small to compare SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.9M–$7.8M after Steam's cut $5.3M–$12.1M before the cut	$19.99	15k reviews Mostly Positive	ManagementSingleplayer
Sun Haven 2023	Est. copies ≈ 630k–1.0M SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $4.3M–$11.6M after Steam's cut $7.9M–$17.9M before the cut	$24.99	25k reviews Very Positive	Farming SimPixel Graphics
inZOI 2025	Est. copies ≈ 807k–1.3M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $8.9M–$23.9M after Steam's cut $16.1M–$36.7M before the cut	$39.99	33k reviews Mostly Positive	Life SimCharacter Customization