How much revenue did Dwarf Fortress make?

$6.4M–$17.3M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Dwarf Fortress sell?

Q: How many copies did Dwarf Fortress sell?

780k to 1.3M copies, based on its 31k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 780k–1.3M; $6.4M–$17.3M after Steam's cut $11.7M–$26.6M before the cut; from 31k reviews (Very 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 Dwarf Fortress out and predicted the genre from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Dwarf Fortress's, is estimated from Steam reviews, not self-reported sales.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 42k–114k

best case 1.3M (Craft The World)

Games like Dwarf Fortress

The middle of these games

≈ 42k–114k copies

≈ $287k–$662k after Steam's cut

from ~2k reviews

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

6 of your 8 similar games are hits.

Best case: Craft The World at ≈ 955k–1.6M copies, ≈ $5.0M–$13.4M after Steam's cut.

What it took to get here

About half the games that made it here had over 435 reviews in their first month; the spread ran 163 to 1k.

The genre you'd be entering

Your set: Your set clusters on Colony Sim (5 of 8) and Dwarf (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Dwarf + Colony Sim, priced around $19.
The era: The games you compared span 2011 to 2025, and 3 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 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
Craft The World 2014	Est. copies ≈ 955k–1.6M 10x vs typical SteamSpy 500k–1M	Est. revenue $5.0M–$13.4M after Steam's cut $9.1M–$20.6M before the cut	$18.99	17k reviews Very Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Diggles: The Myth of Fenris 2020	Est. copies ≈ 16k–26k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $45k–$120k after Steam's cut $81k–$184k before the cut	$9.99	654 reviews Very Positive	StrategyAdventure
Mountaincore 2025	Est. copies ≈ 7k–11k SteamSpy under 20k	Est. revenue Free	Free	263 reviews Mixed	StrategySimulation
Noble Fates 2021	Est. copies ≈ 37k–60k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $253k–$680k after Steam's cut $460k–$1.0M before the cut	$24.99	1k reviews Very Positive	Early AccessColony Sim
Regions Of Ruin 2018	Est. copies ≈ 141k–229k 2.8x vs typical SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $465k–$1.3M after Steam's cut $846k–$1.9M before the cut	$11.99	5k reviews Very Positive	RPGAdventure
Dwarfs!? 2011	Est. copies ≈ 68k–111k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $188k–$505k after Steam's cut $342k–$777k before the cut	$9.99	1k reviews Mostly Positive	DwarfColony Sim
Gnomes 2025	Est. copies ≈ 45k–73k SteamSpy 20k–50k	Est. revenue $123k–$331k after Steam's cut $224k–$510k before the cut	$9.99	2k reviews Overwhelmingly Positive	Tower DefenseTurn-Based
KeeperRL 2024	Est. copies ≈ 45k–73k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $246k–$663k after Steam's cut $448k–$1.0M before the cut	$19.99	2k reviews Very Positive	UndergroundSimulation