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How many copies did Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ sell?

Estimated copies sold
≈ 1.3M–2.1M
$14.2M–$38.3M after Steam's cut $25.9M–$58.9M before the cut
from 23k 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 Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™'s, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 288k–665k
best case 1.3M (BATTLETECH)
Games like Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™

The middle of these games

≈ 288k–665k copies

≈ $2.9M–$4.3M after Steam's cut

from ~8k 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: BATTLETECH at ≈ 1.0M–1.6M copies, ≈ $11.1M–$29.8M after Steam's cut. A breakout hit, far above a typical game.

The genre you'd be entering
Your set
Your set clusters on Sci-fi (8 of 8) and Turn-Based (6 of 8).
The winners
Winners here lead with Mechs + Turn-Based Tactics, priced around $40. The breakout hits carry Mechs + Turn-Based Tactics + Tactical; a typical game here doesn't.
The era
The games you compared span 2008 to 2023, 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).

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too small to compare
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Galactic Civilizations III
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≈ 1.0M–1.6M
4.1x vs typical
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Master of Orion
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StrategyBoard Game

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