How much revenue did Ancient Cities make?

$442k–$1.2M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Ancient Cities sell?

Q: How many copies did Ancient Cities sell?

54k to 87k copies, based on its 2k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 54k–87k; $442k–$1.2M after Steam's cut $804k–$1.8M before the cut; from 2k 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 Ancient Cities out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Ancient Cities's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 750k–4.2M

best case 6.9M (Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition)

Games like Ancient Cities

The middle of these games

≈ 750k–4.2M copies

≈ $8.8M–$54.5M after Steam's cut

from ~29k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019’s Steam releases earned about $34k gross, so plan for that or less.

7 of your 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition at ≈ 5.2M–8.5M copies, ≈ $50.4M–$135.5M after Steam's cut.

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 503 to 44k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on City Builder (8 of 8) and Historical (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with RTS + City Builder, priced around $35.
The era: The games you compared span 2018 to 2025, and 2 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 38 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
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 2019	Est. copies ≈ 5.2M–8.5M 6.4x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $50.4M–$135.5M after Steam's cut $91.6M–$208.4M before the cut	$34.99	182k reviews Very Positive	StrategyRTS
Ostriv 2020	Est. copies ≈ 189k–308k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $1.3M–$3.5M after Steam's cut $2.4M–$5.4M before the cut	$24.99	8k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Early AccessStrategy
HUMANKIND™ 2021	Est. copies ≈ 709k–1.2M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.8M–$26.2M after Steam's cut $17.7M–$40.3M before the cut	$49.99	29k reviews Mixed	StrategyTurn-Based Strategy
Dawn of Man 2019	Est. copies ≈ 513k–834k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $3.5M–$9.5M after Steam's cut $6.4M–$14.6M before the cut	$24.99	18k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Colony Sim
Manor Lords 2024	Est. copies ≈ 2.3M–3.7M 3.2x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $24.8M–$66.6M after Steam's cut $45.0M–$102.4M before the cut	$39.99	91k reviews Very Positive	StrategyCity Builder
Farthest Frontier 2025	Est. copies ≈ 630k–1.0M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $6.1M–$16.3M after Steam's cut $11.0M–$25.1M before the cut	$34.99	25k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessHistorical
Frostpunk 2018	Est. copies ≈ 4.2M–6.8M 4.8x vs typical SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $34.4M–$92.4M after Steam's cut $62.5M–$142.2M before the cut	$29.99	137k reviews Very Positive	City Builder Survival
Ragnorium 2022	Est. copies ≈ 15k–25k too small to compare SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $106k–$286k after Steam's cut $193k–$440k before the cut	$24.99	624 reviews Mixed	SurvivalHistorical