How much revenue did Telling Lies make?

$209k–$563k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Telling Lies sell?

Q: How many copies did Telling Lies sell?

38k to 62k copies, based on its 1k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 38k–62k; $209k–$563k after Steam's cut $381k–$866k before the cut; from 1k 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 Telling Lies out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Telling Lies's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 99k–258k

best case 666k (Her Story)

Games like Telling Lies

The middle of these games

≈ 99k–258k copies

≈ $336k–$1.3M after Steam's cut

from ~4k 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: Her Story at ≈ 507k–824k copies, ≈ $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 538 reviews in their first month; the spread ran 331 to 3k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Point & Click (5 of 8) and Detective (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Investigation + Typing, priced around $10.
The era: The games you compared span 2015 to 2024, 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 61 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
SIMULACRA 2 2020	Est. copies ≈ 42k–68k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $92k–$247k after Steam's cut $167k–$380k before the cut	$7.99	2k reviews Very Positive	Horror Immersive Sim
The Complex 2020	Est. copies ≈ 88k–143k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $364k–$978k after Steam's cut $661k–$1.5M before the cut	$14.99	4k reviews Mostly Positive	AdventureFMV
SIMULACRA 2017	Est. copies ≈ 161k–261k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $221k–$593k after Steam's cut $401k–$913k before the cut	$4.99	5k reviews Very Positive	HorrorDetective
The Operator 2024	Est. copies ≈ 219k–355k 2.1x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $842k–$2.3M after Steam's cut $1.5M–$3.5M before the cut	$13.99	9k reviews Very Positive	DetectiveInvestigation
Erica 2021	Est. copies ≈ 44k–71k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $144k–$387k after Steam's cut $261k–$595k before the cut	$11.99	2k reviews Mostly Positive	Choose Your Own AdventureFMV
A Date in the Park 2016	Est. copies ≈ 86k–139k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue Free	Free	2k reviews Very Positive	ExplorationPoint & Click
Her Story 2015	Est. copies ≈ 507k–824k 2.5x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.8M before the cut	$9.99	10k reviews Very Positive	InvestigationTyping
Stories Untold 2017	Est. copies ≈ 189k–307k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $520k–$1.4M after Steam's cut $945k–$2.1M before the cut	$9.99	6k reviews Very Positive	AdventureText-Based