After talking to Maxim Gorban about “Mount & Blade: By Fire and Sword” and watching the movie “EPISODES: Shadow of Chernobyl” about the creation of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I wondered which Ukrainian games sold the most copies, which ones were the most successful?

The criterion of “best” is quite complicated: everyone has their own tastes, and a game that one person likes may not be liked by another, but the criterion of popularity is a little easier. As a rough approximation, popularity for any commercial product, and games are definitely a commercial product, is measured by sales. So let’s count the sales of famous Ukrainian games and voila… we’ll find the most popular one!

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Publishers and game developers know sales best, but they are not always in a hurry to share them. The situation is even more complicated when the publisher changes over time, it is different in different territories, etc. The number of copies sold can be calculated quite accurately on Steam. SteamDB collects information from 3-4 services that count the availability of games in users’ libraries, and if we exclude extreme results, we can probably get a more or less realistic circulation…

No, because there are free weekends, other digital distribution platforms, physical copies, consoles, etc. However, we will still try to calculate the sales of the most famous games made in Ukraine using all available sources, logic, and experience. First, we will give a general list of the Top 10 Ukrainian games by sales, and then we will mention each game separately and tell you how we got these figures.

But, once again, these are rough estimates and our assumptions. If any of the developers would like to share their real sales figures, although they usually don’t like to do so, we will be happy to do so and publish an updated list.

In addition, please note that we did not count Free-to-Play games, as they can be simply added to an account without ever being played.

Top 10 most popular Ukrainian games by copies sold

Metro 2033 – 10,7 million
Metro Exodus – 10 million
Metro: Last Light – 6.4 million
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl – 4.3 million
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat – 2.7 million
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword – 2.35 million
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – 2.2 million
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter – 2 million
Cossacks: European Wars – 1.1 million
Cossacks 3 – 530 thousand

1. Metro 2033

Copies 10.7-10.9 million
Developer 4A Games
Genre shooter
Year 2010

The total circulation of Metro 2033 is difficult. The last official sales figure was announced back in 2012 – 1.5 million copies on PC and Xbox 360. Since then, the game has been released on PlayStation 4 (2014), Xbox One (2014), Linux (2014), OS X (2015), and Nintendo Switch (2020). These latest releases are already a remaster of Metro 2033 Redux, which, among other things, was offered as part of the Metro Redux bundle. The bundle collected 1.5 million sales by April 2015, but Deep Silver did not announce the breakdown of individual games.

There are separate pages for the classic Metro 2033 and Metro 2033 Redux on Steam, and the number of player reviews on them is more than twice as high in favor of Redux. According to SteamDB, Metro 2033 Redux sales amount to 4.7-4.9 million.

It is believed that Steam controls about 75% of the digital distribution market on PC, and sales of physical copies of PC games have been falling to zero for years. So let’s add another 25% and get about 6.2-6.5 million sales of the remake on PC. Plus 1.5 million sales before the Redux edition, and most likely, based on the number of reviews, about 2.5 million on Steam plus some on consoles. We’ll estimate an unspecified number of sales on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch at about 2 million more, but the latter is a complete guess. As a result, we will get an impressive 10.7-10.9 million copies.

2. Metro Exodus

Copies 10 million
Developer 4A Games
Genre shooter
Year 2019

The figure of 10 million copies of Metro Exodus sold was released by the game developers themselves in February 2024, so this is official, accurate, and fairly recent information. It took the game a little over 5 years to reach this figure.

As a reminder, the shooter from 4A Games was released on PC and major eighth- and ninth-generation consoles. According to SteamDB, Steam accounted for 3.15-3.34 million copies (let’s ignore the frankly anomalous figure from PlayTracker). Let’s add another 25% and get approximately 4.2-4.45 million copies sold on PC.

3. Metro: Last Light

Copies 6.4-7 million
Developer 4A Games
Genre shooter
Year 2013

As with Metro 2033, there are no official sales figures for Metro: Last Light, there are no official sales figures, only the announcement of 1.5 million Metro Redux bundles sold in 2015.

Last Light got the Redux version pretty quickly, so Steam didn’t keep a separate page for the original game. According to SteamDB, sales of Metro: Last Light on Valve’s platform amounted to 3.5-3.9 million copies. Add 25% to other PC platforms and we get 4.6-5.2 million copies on PC. If we use the same proportion of sales on PC and consoles as Metro 2033, we will have about 6.4-7 million copies in total. Let’s focus on this figure.

4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Copies 4.3-4.5 million
Developer GSC Game World
Genre shooter
Year 2007

After numerous delays, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was released in March 2007. In August 2007, the game appeared on Steam. A year later, in September 2008, Sergey Grigorievich announced that the game had sold 2 million copies.

We can assume that most of the early sales were for physical copies, because at that time Steam did not yet control the lion’s share of the PC market, and players preferred games on disks.

As of now, according to SteamDB, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl has from 1.7 to 1.9 million players in its libraries. Add another 25% on GOG.com (released in 2014, when GSC Game World acquired the rights from THQ) and other services, and we get 2.3-2.5 million digital copies.

In March 2024, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl was released on PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox One/Series X|S consoles, but it’s too early to talk about any significant sales figures, let’s wait until the end of the year.

So, in our opinion, we can now talk about the circulation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl at 4.3-4.5 million copies. Most likely, approximately the same number of games were sold in pirated copies, mostly in the former CIS.

As a reminder, we had a big article about whether to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl now. In addition, an interesting documentary about the development of this game has recently been released – “EPISODES: Shadow of Chornobyl”.

5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Copies 2.7-2.8 million
Developer GSC Game World
Genre shooter
Year 2009

The Ukrainian release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat took place in late 2009, and the global release – in early 2010. According to many players and journalists, this is the most stable and best version of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. There were no announcements of the game’s sales results, so, as in the case of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, we can cautiously assume sales of about 1 million on physical media. Although this game is better than the previous one, it is the third game with almost the same gameplay, and digital distribution is gradually taking over.

This, by the way, is confirmed by the sales figures on Steam. According to SteamDB, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is available in the libraries of 1.29-1.36 million service users. Add 25% to other platforms and we get 1.72-1.81 million digital sales. We don’t know the sales on consoles for the first 3 months of 2024 yet. But we are not sure that they will be shockingly high.

So, for now, we are sticking to the 2.7-2.8 million copies for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Call of Pripyat. This is also a lot.

6. Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword

Copies 2.35-3.1 million
Developer Studio Sich
Genre action/RPG
Year 2009

And here is the game that actually prompted us to prepare this material. Officially, the sales figures for Mount & Blade: By Fire and Sword has never been officially announced, but during our interview the game’s author Maxim Gorban said that the game “went viral” in Poland, meaning that sales were significant and this prompted them to make a worldwide release of the project.

Good sales in Poland in 2010 were over 50 thousand copies. Given that this is a game about Poland, with a title based on a popular Polish novel and movie, and good PR from CD Projekt, we can cautiously assume that the circulation is closer to 100 thousand copies. Approximately the same figures can be assumed for the entire CIS plus the rest of the world. So we have an approximate 300 thousand physical copies sold. It doesn’t seem like much.

But then Steam and the sales and bundles from Fanatical, which sells Steam keys, come into play. According to SteamDB, Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword is available to 1.54-2.14 million users of the service. Adding 25% for sales on GOG.com (by the way, until May 27, 2024, the game can be purchased there for only $1.49) and other digital platforms, we have a circulation of 2.05-2.84 million copies.

Plus a hypothetical 300 thousand on physical media, and we have an approximate total circulation of Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword” in the range of 2.35-3.14 million copies. Not bad for an indie project.

7. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Copies 2.2-2.25 million
Developer GSC Game World
Genre shooter
Year 2008

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was released a year after S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and was met with a little more restraint by the media and players. The sales figures for this game have never been disclosed, but we can cautiously talk about a result that is twice as bad as the first part – 1 million copies on physical media worldwide.

As for Steam, according to SteamDB, 907-943 thousand copies of the game were sold. Add 25% to other digital platforms and we’ll get 1.2-1.25 million copies in digital. We’re not counting the game’s release on consoles in 2024 yet.

As a result, we estimate that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky sales reached approximately 2.2-2.25 million copies.

8. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter

CopiesCirculation 2 million
Developer Frogwares
Genre adventure
Year 2016

The series of Sherlock Holmes games by Kyiv-based Frogwares has been released since 2002 and has already included nine projects plus one remake. According to our estimates, the most popular in the series is Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter, which was released in 2016.

[UPDATED] An official representative of Frogwares studio contacted us and provided more accurate sales figures. On Steam alone, adventure Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter sold about 1.5 million copies on Steam alone. Total sales of the game on all platforms, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, exceeded 2 million copies. This is an impressive result for a detective game. So Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter rises to #8 in our top list.

9. Cossacks: European Wars

Copies 1.1 million
Developer GSC Game World
Genre real-time strategy
Year 2001

The last official sales figure for the first Cossacks to be announced was from the end of 2002. A year and a half after its release, the game crossed the 1 million copies sold mark and became Ukraine’s first real breakthrough into the global market.

In 2005, on the eve of the release of Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, it was announced that Cossacks: European Wars and the expansion packs Cossacks: The Art of War and Cossacks: Back to War sold a total of 2.5 million copies, but these were still standalone add-ons, so they should be counted separately. At the time, there were almost no additional disks for old games when such add-ons were released, so we can assume that at least 1.4 million of those 2.5 million were for the add-ons.

Cossacks: European Wars appeared on Steam only in 2011 and sold only 26.1-26.4 thousand copies on this platform; it was bought for collections and out of nostalgia. There is only one platform for this game, so let’s focus on the number… let’s say 1.1 million copies. In fact, this is also a lot, and the impact of Cossacks on the Ukrainian gaming market is invaluable.

Unfortunately, no information about sales of Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars is not available. According to SteamDB, 28-31 thousand copies of the game have been sold on Steam since 2011.

10. Cossacks 3

Copies 530-610 thousand
Developer GSC Game World
Genre real-time strategy
Year 2016

Cossacks 3 from the revived GSC Game World was not welcomed with open arms. The game received a lot of criticism, but despite this, the strategy was well received. In 2016, there were not many RTSs released, again, due to nostalgia, “it’s GSC,” plus developers tried to fix the most annoying things.

As a result, according to SteamDB, the game has settled on PCs of 530-610 thousand Steam users. We’re not sure if it makes sense to add 25% from other digital platforms in this case, since even the game’s official website only refers to Steam, but something else was definitely sold on GOG.com. It seems that this game didn’t have a physical release either.

In any case, 530-610 thousand is also a good circulation for a Ukrainian game, and it seems that these figures convinced Sergiy Hryhorovych to give his brother the opportunity to create S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

I wonder if S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will break the records of the previous installments and if this game will be able to make its way to the first place in the list of the most popular Ukrainian games.

Approximate sales of other well-known Ukrainian games

BIGFOOT – 400-630 thousand
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments – 400-550 thousand
The Sinking City – 400 thousand
Ultimate General: Civil War – 320-330 thousand
Men of War – 300-500 thousand
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes – 300-400 thousand
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One – 300-400 thousand
Ultimate General: Gettysburg – 290-310 thousand
Ostriv – 220-270 thousand
This Land is My Land – 170-200 thousand
Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts – 130-220 thousand
Bounty Train – 120-190 thousand
Cliff Empire – 120-180 thousand
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened – 100-120 thousand
Football, Tactics & Glory – 75-95 thousand
Cradle – 50-60 thousand
Railroad Corporation – 40-100 thousand

Unfortunately, it is difficult to calculate even the approximate number of copies of such Ukrainian games as Xenus: Boiling Point, White Gold: War in Paradise, The Precursors, Chasm: The Rift, Carnivores, Vivisector: Beast Inside, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason and many others are simply impossible at the moment.

We would like to emphasize once again that all of these, with rare exceptions, are not official sales data, but our own interpolations based on SteamDB data and our own experience. If any publisher or developer wants to provide us with official sales data, we will gladly adjust the figures in this article.