Space Sim gameplay
Every paid Steam game tagged Space Sim, ranked by our estimated lifetime revenue. 1,900 games in the catalog, 1,054 with a sales estimate.
Games
1,900
Active paid titles tagged
Total Gross
$1.4B
Sum of estimated lifetime revenue
Median
$1.7K
Half earn less, half more
Hit Rate
17.0%
179 games earned $100K+
Revenue share - top 5 vs rest
- No Man's Sky 20.5%
- Starfield 18.2%
- Kerbal Space Program 7.8%
- Space Engineers 6.0%
- Oxygen Not Included 4.8%
- Other (1049 games) 42.7%
Top 25 earners
The highest-earning Space Sim games by our estimator.
| # | Game | Released | Reviews | Peak CCU | Est. Units | Est. Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  No Man's Sky Hello Games | 2016-08-12 | 424,652 | 212,321 | 4,671,172 | $280,153,541 |
| 2 |  Starfield Bethesda Game Studios | 2023-09-05 | 175,926 | 330,597 | 4,958,955 | $247,898,160 |
| 3 |  Kerbal Space Program Squad | 2015-04-27 | 148,326 | 23,452 | 2,669,868 | $106,768,021 |
| 4 |  Space Engineers Keen Software House | 2019-02-28 | 134,664 | 23,867 | 4,098,470 | $81,928,415 |
| 5 |  Oxygen Not Included Klei Entertainment | 2019-07-30 | 144,782 | 27,380 | 2,606,076 | $65,125,839 |
| 6 |  Dyson Sphere Program Youthcat Studio | 2021-01-20 | 92,127 | 59,339 | 3,000,453 | $59,979,055 |
| 7 |  Empyrion - Galactic Survival Eleon Game Studios | 2020-08-05 | 34,476 | 8,778 | 2,275,416 | $45,485,566 |
| 8 |  X4: Foundations Egosoft | 2018-11-30 | 30,568 | 15,074 | 747,218 | $37,353,428 |
| 9 |  Elite Dangerous Frontier Developments | 2015-04-02 | 108,255 | 27,568 | 1,791,920 | $35,820,481 |
| 10 |  STAR WARS™: Squadrons MOTIVE | 2020-10-01 | 28,276 | 35,721 | 770,709 | $30,820,653 |
| 11 |  FTL: Faster Than Light Subset Games | 2012-09-14 | 79,109 | 18,821 | 2,953,403 | $29,504,496 |
| 12 |  Surviving Mars Haemimont Games, Abstraction | 2018-03-15 | 29,314 | 23,722 | 962,549 | $28,866,845 |
| 13 |  Hardspace: Shipbreaker Blackbird Interactive | 2022-05-24 | 22,553 | 7,718 | 652,850 | $22,827,988 |
| 14 |  Sins of a Solar Empire®: Rebellion Ironclad Games Corporation, Stardock Entertainment | 2012-06-12 | 16,370 | 91,159 | 910,649 | $18,182,625 |
| 15 |  Kerbal Space Program 2 Intercept Games | 2023-02-24 | 32,098 | 6,854 | 254,500 | $12,722,455 |
| 16 |  Universe Sandbox Giant Army | 2015-08-24 | 32,667 | 776 | 388,000 | $11,636,120 |
| 17 |  PULSAR: Lost Colony Leafy Games | 2021-06-22 | 5,745 | 1,122 | 551,520 | $11,024,885 |
| 18 |  Void Crew Hutlihut Games | 2024-11-25 | 8,501 | 5,689 | 439,775 | $10,985,580 |
| 19 |  Avorion Boxelware | 2020-03-09 | 14,657 | 4,517 | 389,169 | $9,725,333 |
| 20 |  SpaceEngine Cosmographic Software | 2019-06-11 | 17,006 | 596 | 298,000 | $8,937,020 |
| 21 |  Deliver Us The Moon KeokeN Interactive | 2019-10-10 | 9,648 | 310 | 308,736 | $7,715,313 |
| 22 |  Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander Walternate Realities | 2022-10-24 | 13,012 | 13,757 | 374,746 | $7,489,566 |
| 23 |  Wildgate Moonshot Games | 2025-07-22 | 5,674 | 3,697 | 240,305 | $7,206,747 |
| 24 |  Space Engineers 2 Keen Software House | 2025-01-27 | 5,912 | 4,492 | 227,021 | $6,808,360 |
| 25 |  Space Haven Bugbyte Ltd. | 2026-05-13 | 11,306 | 6,142 | 248,732 | $6,215,813 |
Releases per year
Is Space Sim trending up or fading? Bars show new paid Steam releases with this tag each year. Green flecks are hits (≥$100K est. lifetime).
3
2010
3
2011
7
2012
5
2013
16
2014
33
2015
27
2016
31
2017
40
2018
46
2019
84
2020
123
2021
122
2022
123
2023
144
2024
196
2025
235
2026
Top upcoming
Highest-wishlist unreleased Space Sim games.
| # | Game | WL Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  beta decay Rotoscope Studios | 86 |
| 2 |  Squadron 42 Cloud Imperium Games Ltd, Cloud Imperium Games Texas LLC | 168 |
| 3 |  Main Sequence Tumbling Dumpling Studio | 254 |
| 4 |  C-Beams Distant Light Games | 260 |
| 5 |  Capital Command Hellride Games | 279 |
| 6 |  Starpath Jonathan Smårs | 513 |
| 7 |  DREADNOUGHT TARTARUS benkimchi | 533 |
| 8 |  Spaceflight Simulator 2 Team Curiosity ✦ | 554 |
| 9 |  Verse Project Synthes Games | 584 |
| 10 |  Star Wrath Targem Games | 755 |
Top recent (12 months)
Highest-earning Space Sim games released in the past year.
| # | Game | Est. Gross |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | | $6,215,813 |
| 2 |  | $5,386,121 |
| 3 |  | $5,192,279 |
| 4 |  | $2,142,288 |
| 5 |  | $2,084,785 |
| 6 |  | $2,062,112 |
| 7 |  | $2,004,497 |
| 8 |  | $1,892,548 |
| 9 |  | $1,659,693 |
| 10 |  | $1,497,251 |