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Subnautica vs Subnautica: Below Zero

Reviews on Steam

Subnautica

3.4× more reviews

Critical reception

Subnautica

7pp gap

Estimated sales (median)

Subnautica

3.4× more units (white-box estimate)

More recent

Subnautica: Below Zero

3 years apart

A
S

Subnautica

2018 · Adventure

Unknown Worlds Entertainment · Unknown Worlds Entertainment

Reviews
338,617
Positive
97%
Launch price
$29.99
Engine
Unknown
Sales (median)
30.5M
Net rev
$522.1M
B
S

Subnautica: Below Zero

2021 · Adventure

Unknown Worlds Entertainment · Unknown Worlds Entertainment

Reviews
98,838
Positive
90%
Launch price
$29.99
Engine
Unknown
Sales (median)
8.9M
Net rev
$152.4M

Tag overlap

95% shared , 19 shared tags, 1 only on Subnautica, 1 only on Subnautica: Below Zero.

Only Subnautica

VR

Shared

Open World Survival CraftSurvivalHorrorOpen WorldUnderwaterExplorationCraftingBase-BuildingSingleplayerAdventureFirst-PersonSci-fiMultiplayerSandboxAtmosphericAliensSurvival HorrorActionIndie

Only Subnautica: Below Zero

Story Rich

Sales estimates

Paid-game estimates use the same transparent multi-factor Boxleiter method. Free-to-play games never receive paid unit or revenue estimates.

Sales estimate

v1.0

18.3M to 42.7M

units (median: 30.5M)

≈ $313.2M to $730.9M modeled net revenue (fixed store-cut, refund, and regional-price assumptions applied)

18.3M median 42.7M
+ How is this calculated?
338,617 reviews × NB(90) = 30,475,530 median units
Factor Adjustment
base +50
year_2018 +15
price_$30 +5
positive_97% +10
genre_Adventure +10
final NB 90

Heuristic display range: median × [0.6, 1.4]. Boundary protection: NB ∈ [15, 150].

Methodology & limitations

Sales estimates use an additive Boxleiter-derived heuristic against public Steam review counts. They are not authoritative sales data, and the fixed display range is not a statistically validated confidence interval. Actual results may fall outside it, especially for deeply discounted or bundle-heavy titles. Algorithm version v1.0. Read the exact method and validation status.

Sales estimate

v1.0

5.3M to 12.5M

units (median: 8.9M)

≈ $91.4M to $213.3M modeled net revenue (fixed store-cut, refund, and regional-price assumptions applied)

5.3M median 12.5M
+ How is this calculated?
98,838 reviews × NB(90) = 8,895,420 median units
Factor Adjustment
base +50
year_2021 +15
price_$30 +5
positive_90% +10
genre_Adventure +10
final NB 90

Heuristic display range: median × [0.6, 1.4]. Boundary protection: NB ∈ [15, 150].

Methodology & limitations

Sales estimates use an additive Boxleiter-derived heuristic against public Steam review counts. They are not authoritative sales data, and the fixed display range is not a statistically validated confidence interval. Actual results may fall outside it, especially for deeply discounted or bundle-heavy titles. Algorithm version v1.0. Read the exact method and validation status.

How comparison pages work

Verdicts are objective, they call out which game scores higher on a single measurable axis (reviews, price, sales estimate, recency). They don't claim "better." Tag overlap is computed from the public Steam tag list. Sales estimates use a multi-factor Boxleiter method whose formula is shown in full on each game's page.

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