Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Arcade
Should I ship a Character Customization Arcade game?
Character Customization + Arcade
Of 505 developers who shipped a Character Customization Arcade 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.. 775 more are announced, ×2.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $600, level with the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $440k, ×710 the market median. Revenue is down 10% on the market; 775 games are announced against 309 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $179 (exactly $179) |
|---|---|
| Median | $599 (exactly $599) |
| Top 25% | $4.8k (exactly $4,799) |
| Top 5% | $446k (exactly $445,577) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 505 |
| Released games | 1,424 |
| Announced | 775 |
| 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 down 10% on the market, supply 50% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 20%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Character Customization
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Arcade
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, Arcade; 3 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, PvP
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Colorful, Funny
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 81% positive over 126,825 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 9 in 10 of the 252 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 775 games are announced against 309 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.5 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Character Customization with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Football (American)Strong odds
- + Real-TimeStrong odds
- + Music-Based Procedural GenerationFair
- + TransportationFair
- + MinigamesFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + BikesFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + GamblingFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + TypingFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Need for Speed™ Heat | older | $69.99 | 128,933 84% | 3.9M | $271M (exactly $270,720,620) | Ghost Games |
| | Mortal Kombat 11 | older | $49.99 | 87,021 88% | 2.6M | $131M (exactly $130,505,394) | NetherRealm Studios, QLOC, Shiver |
| | Need for Speed™ Unbound | older | $69.99 | 49,862 61% | 1.5M | $105M (exactly $104,695,241) | Criterion Games |
| | Geometry Dash | older | $4.99 | 595,606 93% | 18M | $89M (exactly $89,162,218) | RobTop Games |
| | TEKKEN 7 | older | $39.99 | 68,063 83% | 2.0M | $82M (exactly $81,655,181) | BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc. |
| | Street Fighter™ 6 | older | $39.99 | 49,952 81% | 1.5M | $60M (exactly $59,927,414) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| | TEKKEN 8 | older | $39.99 | 46,009 56% | 1.4M | $55M (exactly $55,196,997) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. |
| | Mortal Kombat 1 | older | $49.99 | 34,197 74% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $51,285,241) | NetherRealm Studios, QLOC |
| | REMATCH | $29.99 | 39,905 70% | 1.2M | $36M (exactly $35,902,528) | Sloclap | |
| | STAR WARS Zero Company™ | $49.99 | 19,521 82% | 586k | $29M (exactly $29,275,644) | Bit Reactor | |
| | Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds | $69.99 | 11,479 93% | 344k | $24M (exactly $24,102,456) | Sonic Team | |
| | Tower Unite | $19.99 | 16,237 89% | 487k | $9.7M (exactly $9,737,329) | PixelTail Games | |
| | Dead as Disco | · EA | $24.99 | 12,354 96% | 371k | $9.3M (exactly $9,261,794) | Brain Jar Games, Inc. |
| | THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV | $29.99 | 8,399 83% | 252k | $7.6M (exactly $7,556,580) | SNK CORPORATION | |
| | Xenonauts 2 | $39.99 | 4,853 81% | 146k | $5.8M (exactly $5,822,144) | Goldhawk Interactive | |
| | The Coin Game | $19.99 | 5,647 92% | 169k | $3.4M (exactly $3,386,506) | devotid | |
| | Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 3 + 4 | $49.99 | 1,554 68% | 47k | $2.3M (exactly $2,330,534) | Iron Galaxy Studios | |
| | Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite | $9.99 | 6,876 76% | 206k | $2.1M (exactly $2,060,737) | Odd Dreams Digital |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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