How much revenue did Onward make?

$1.6M–$4.3M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Onward sell?

Q: How many copies did Onward sell?

231k to 375k copies, based on its 9k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 231k–375k; $1.6M–$4.3M after Steam's cut $2.9M–$6.6M before the cut; from 9k reviews (Mixed)

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 Onward out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Onward's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 3.1M–4.8M

best case 64.7M (War Thunder)

Games like Onward

The middle of these games

≈ 3.1M–4.8M copies

≈ $35.3M–$76.5M after Steam's cut

from ~88k 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: War Thunder at ≈ 49.3M–80.1M copies. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on VR (5 of 8) and First-Person (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Simulation + Vehicular Combat. The breakout hits carry Vehicular Combat + World War II + Flight; a typical game here doesn't.
The era: The games you compared span 2013 to 2021, 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
War Thunder 2013	Est. copies ≈ 49.3M–80.1M 8.9x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	780k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlaySimulation
SteamVR unreleased	Est. copies ≈ 2.1M–3.5M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	86k reviews Very Positive	VRSoftware
Soundpad 2017	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $4.9M–$13.2M after Steam's cut $8.9M–$20.3M before the cut	$4.99	104k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	UtilitiesAudio Production
Rec Room 2021	Est. copies ≈ 2.1M–3.4M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	83k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayVR
Half-Life: Alyx 2020	Est. copies ≈ 2.6M–4.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $43.0M–$115.5M after Steam's cut $78.1M–$177.7M before the cut	$59.99	105k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	VRFPS
Alien: Isolation 2014	Est. copies ≈ 3.7M–6.1M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $41.0M–$110.1M after Steam's cut $74.5M–$169.4M before the cut	$39.99	66k reviews Very Positive	Horror Survival Horror
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard 2017	Est. copies ≈ 4.3M–7.1M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $23.9M–$64.1M after Steam's cut $43.4M–$98.7M before the cut	$19.99	126k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Horror Survival Horror
Totally Accurate Battlegrounds 2018	Est. copies ≈ 2.7M–4.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue Free	Free	88k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerPhysics