How much revenue did Hack the Core make?

Hack the Core is free to play, so there is no copy-sales revenue to estimate.

How many copies did Hack the Core sell?

Q: How many copies did Hack the Core sell?

1k to 2k copies, based on its 45 Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 1k–2k; from 45 reviews (Mostly 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 Hack the Core out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Hack the Core's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 493k–823k

best case 2.1M (Emily is Away)

Games like Hack the Core

The middle of these games

≈ 493k–823k copies

≈ $1.7M–$3.6M after Steam's cut

from ~17k 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.

No genre covers most of your similar games. The closest is Story Rich (4 of 8), so the genre you lead with is still undecided.

Of the 416 indie games that passed 1,000 reviews in 2022, 11.8% were novel genre mixes and 88.2% stuck to an established genre. Published indie market research.

Best case: Emily is Away at ≈ 1.6M–2.6M copies.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 2k reviews in their first month; the spread ran 2k to 7k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Story Rich (4 of 8) and Choices Matter (3 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Story Rich + Choices Matter.
The era: The games you compared span 2015 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 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
Emily is Away 2015	Est. copies ≈ 1.6M–2.6M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue Free	Free	32k reviews Very Positive	Free to PlayStory Rich
60 Seconds! 2015	Est. copies ≈ 570k–927k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.8M after Steam's cut $2.6M–$5.8M before the cut	$8.99	12k reviews Very Positive	Turn-Based TacticsExploration
60 Seconds! Reatomized 2019	Est. copies ≈ 561k–912k SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $1.5M–$4.1M after Steam's cut $2.8M–$6.4M before the cut	$9.99	19k reviews Very Positive	2DChoose Your Own Adventure
Cultist Simulator 2018	Est. copies ≈ 430k–698k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $2.4M–$6.4M after Steam's cut $4.3M–$9.8M before the cut	$19.99	14k reviews Mostly Positive	SimulationChoices Matter
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! 2021	Est. copies ≈ 798k–1.3M 1.9x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $3.3M–$8.8M after Steam's cut $6.0M–$13.6M before the cut	$14.99	32k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Visual Novel
Emily is Away Too 2017	Est. copies ≈ 214k–348k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $294k–$791k after Steam's cut $535k–$1.2M before the cut	$4.99	6k reviews Very Positive	IndieSimulation
Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk 2021	Est. copies ≈ 553k–898k SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $1.4M–$3.7M after Steam's cut $2.5M–$5.7M before the cut	$8.99	22k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Psychological Horror Visual Novel
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp 2020	Est. copies ≈ 152k–247k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $501k–$1.3M after Steam's cut $912k–$2.1M before the cut	$11.99	6k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Dating SimLGBTQ+