Games › Flight › Flight + Action
Should I ship an Action Flight game?
Flight + Action
Of 330 developers who shipped an Action Flight game in the last 2 years: 3 in 10 made under est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 4 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 20 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 561 more are announced, ×3.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $360 in the last 2 years and $450 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 6 / 10 build. 189 developers shipped in the last year and 561 games are announced.
| Bottom 30% | $90 (exactly $90) |
|---|---|
| Median | $359 (exactly $359) |
| Top 25% | $2.7k (exactly $2,699) |
| Top 5% | $147k (exactly $147,052) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 330 |
| Released games | 1,425 |
| Announced | 561 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $5.99 |
momentum: how a niche's revenue percentiles and developer count moved between two equal, adjacent periods, divided by the market's own move. See method., 12 months: revenue up 10% on the market, supply 30% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 13%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Flight, Action; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Shooter, Arcade, Simulation
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Third Person
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 83% positive over 23,765 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $90. 9 in 10 of the 169 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 561 games are announced against 189 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.0 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Flight with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Choose Your Own AdventureFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Quick-Time EventsFair
- + CatsFair
- + Life SimPoor odds
- + TradingPoor odds
- + MiningPoor odds
- + CraftingPoor odds
- + Base BuildingPoor odds
- + EconomyPoor odds
- + RTSPoor odds
- + Cold WarPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN | older | $59.99 | 46,235 87% | 1.4M | $83M (exactly $83,209,130) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. |
| | The Crew™ 2 | older | $29.99 | 86,533 78% | 2.6M | $78M (exactly $77,853,740) | Ivory Tower |
| | X4: Foundations | older | $49.99 | 25,257 79% | 758k | $38M (exactly $37,877,923) | Egosoft |
| | Brick Rigs | older | $19.99 | 53,749 95% | 1.6M | $32M (exactly $32,233,275) | Fluppisoft GmbH |
| | STAR WARS™: Squadrons | older | $39.99 | 25,086 66% | 753k | $30M (exactly $30,095,674) | MOTIVE |
| | Trailmakers | older | $24.99 | 33,465 92% | 1.0M | $25M (exactly $25,088,710) | Flashbulb |
| | EVERSPACE™ 2 | older | $49.99 | 12,040 85% | 361k | $18M (exactly $18,056,388) | ROCKFISH Games |
| | VTOL VR | older | $29.99 | 19,885 98% | 597k | $18M (exactly $17,890,534) | Boundless Dynamics, LLC |
| | Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition | older | $24.99 | 23,349 86% | 700k | $18M (exactly $17,504,745) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| | X-Plane 11 | older | $29.99 | 19,206 92% | 576k | $17M (exactly $17,279,638) | Laminar Research |
| | Jump Space | · EA | $19.99 | 10,724 85% | 322k | $6.4M (exactly $6,431,183) | Keepsake Games |
| | Cleared Hot | · EA | $17.99 | 3,934 96% | 118k | $2.1M (exactly $2,123,180) | Not Knowing Corporation |
| | Lost Skies | $24.99 | 2,470 63% | 74k | $1.9M (exactly $1,851,759) | Bossa Studios | |
| | Aces of Thunder | $29.99 | 1,159 57% | 35k | $1.0M (exactly $1,042,752) | Gaijin Entertainment | |
| | Vietnam War | · EA | $14.99 | 1,704 84% | 51k | $766k (exactly $766,289) | Thorium Game Lab |
| | Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator (UFDS) - FPV drone simulator | $29.99 | 800 80% | 24k | $720k (exactly $719,760) | SIMTECH SOLUTIONS | |
| | Liftoff®: Micro Drones | $15.99 | 1,418 92% | 43k | $680k (exactly $680,215) | LuGus Studios | |
| | Valkyrie of Phantasm | $29.99 | 556 86% | 17k | $500k (exactly $500,233) | AREAZERO | |
| | Echoes of Elysium | · EA | $19.99 | 506 61% | 15k | $303k (exactly $303,448) | Loric Games, Inc. |
| | Firehawk: FPV Drone Shooter | $19.99 | 494 91% | 15k | $296k (exactly $296,252) | TruePlayers |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.