How much revenue did Left 4 Dead make?

$11.8M–$31.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Left 4 Dead sell?

Q: How many copies did Left 4 Dead sell?

4.3M to 7.0M copies, based on its 68k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 4.3M–7.0M; $11.8M–$31.7M after Steam's cut $21.5M–$48.8M before the cut; from 68k 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 Left 4 Dead out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Left 4 Dead's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 9.6M–20.4M

best case 87.5M (Left 4 Dead 2)

Games like Left 4 Dead

The middle of these games

≈ 9.6M–20.4M copies

≈ $87.6M–$341.7M after Steam's cut

from ~255k 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: Left 4 Dead 2 at ≈ 66.7M–108.4M copies, ≈ $183.2M–$492.6M after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on FPS (6 of 8) and Shooter (5 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Zombies + Co-op, priced around $10.
The era: The games you compared span 2009 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
Left 4 Dead 2 2009	Est. copies ≈ 66.7M–108.4M 4.1x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue $183.2M–$492.6M after Steam's cut $333.1M–$757.9M before the cut	$9.99	1.1M reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	ZombiesCo-op
Hunt: Showdown 1896 2019	Est. copies ≈ 8.0M–13.0M SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $87.8M–$236.2M after Steam's cut $159.7M–$363.4M before the cut	$39.99	277k reviews Mostly Positive	Open WorldExtraction Shooter
DayZ 2018	Est. copies ≈ 14.2M–23.1M 1.8x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $195.8M–$526.4M after Steam's cut $356.0M–$809.9M before the cut	$49.99	469k reviews Mostly Positive	SurvivalOpen World
DOOM 2016	Est. copies ≈ 9.2M–15.0M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $50.6M–$136.0M after Steam's cut $92.0M–$209.3M before the cut	$19.99	221k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	FPSGore
Unturned 2017	Est. copies ≈ 19.4M–31.6M 2.2x vs typical SteamSpy 50M–100M	Est. revenue Free	Free	565k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlaySurvival
Black Mesa 2020	Est. copies ≈ 3.6M–5.8M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $19.7M–$53.0M after Steam's cut $35.8M–$81.5M before the cut	$19.99	145k reviews Very Positive	FPSRemake
Call of Duty®: Black Ops III 2015	Est. copies ≈ 11.4M–18.4M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $187.3M–$503.5M after Steam's cut $340.5M–$774.7M before the cut	$59.99	233k reviews Very Positive	MultiplayerZombies
Killing Floor 2 2016	Est. copies ≈ 5.4M–8.7M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $44.4M–$119.3M after Steam's cut $80.6M–$183.5M before the cut	$29.99	129k reviews Very Positive	ZombiesMultiplayer