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Game dev · Free calculator

Game Store Cut Comparison Calculator

Compare net revenue across storefronts with different revenue shares: model each store's cut, its share of your sales, engine royalties, refunds, and regional tax to find your blended take-home.

Short answer

Game Store Cut Comparison Calculator

$478,726Net revenue to you

Across all storefronts your blended store cut is 25.9%, leaving $478,726 after tax, refunds, and $0 of engine royalty. That's $13.01 per net unit sold against a $24.99 list price — the gap between those two numbers is what most first-time devs budget wrong. Splitting across stores earns $26,366 more than putting everything on the main store, before counting the audience you'd lose there.

How it's calculated: 36,800 net units at $19.49 → $13.01 per unit in your pocket Adjust the inputs below to recalculate for your own numbers.

Disclaimer: Store cuts, refund rates, and regional pricing change constantly, and platform terms differ by contract. This models scenarios; it is not a forecast or financial advice.

New here? Watch it work in 2 seconds — then tweak it for you.
40,000
$24.99
22%
78%
30%
16%
12%
10%

Remaining units go here.

5%
$1,000,000
8%
11%
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Tap a scenario to load realistic numbers, then tweak the sliders.

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Formula used

Blended net across storefronts

A better revenue share only wins if the store actually sells units. Weighting each storefront's cut by its share of your sales gives the blended take-home that matters — and it's usually much closer to the biggest store's rate than devs expect.

Net = Σ (gross ex-tax × store share × (1 − store cut)) − engine royalty on revenue above the threshold
Common major storefront cut
30%
Challenger storefront cuts
10%–15%
Typical engine royalty
5% above a threshold
PC game refund rate
5%–12%
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Revenue share is not the whole deal

A storefront taking 12% instead of 30% looks like an 18-point raise, but only on units it sells. If it moves a tenth of the volume, the better cut is worth a fraction of the discovery you gave up. Weight by realistic share before you sign anything exclusive.

Costs that sit outside the store cut

Model these separately or you'll overstate take-home again.

  • • Engine royalties, usually a percentage of gross above a revenue threshold.
  • • Publisher or porting partner recoup, which comes off your share, not the store's.
  • • Regional VAT collected in the headline price you set.
  • • Refunds, which are much higher on PC than console and cluster in the first two hours of playtime.

Where diversification actually pays

Second stores tend to pay off through bundles, regional reach, and DRM-free buyers rather than raw volume. Set realistic share inputs — 10–20% is typical for a second PC storefront — and see whether the extra build and QA cost clears.

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FAQ

Does a lower cut justify exclusivity?

Only if the guaranteed money plus the better rate exceeds what you'd net from the wider audience. Model both scenarios here with different unit counts, not just different cuts.

Do tiered revenue shares change this?

Some stores reduce their cut above sales thresholds. If you expect to cross one, run two scenarios and blend them — or enter the effective rate from your last statement.

Where does the engine royalty apply?

Typically to gross revenue above a threshold, before your store cut is deducted — which is why it hurts more than the headline percentage suggests.

Should I include console stores?

Yes, as the second or third store. Cuts are broadly similar to major PC storefronts but refund behaviour and discount patterns differ, so use separate scenarios if the mix is material.

How this calculator is built

Independently maintained

Written by Sam Doshi and the RevenueLab editorial team. We don't sell the data feeds this tool is built on.

Sourced from primary data

Benchmarks come from public AdSense / Stripe / IRS disclosures and reader-submitted data — never third-party "$X per view" claims. Full methodology.

Last editorial review

Reviewed on a rolling quarterly cycle. Dated reviews are published on the methodology record for each calculator.

Editorial standards

See our editorial policy and disclaimer. Results are estimates, not advice.

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