Games › Cooking › Cooking + Artificial Intelligence
Should I ship an AI Cooking game?
Cooking + Artificial Intelligence
Only 15 developers shipped an AI Cooking game in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, Fast Food Simulator, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 10 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 3 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $73k, ×154 the market's $480 for a 3 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $33k; 1 in 20 cleared $3.8M, ×8192 the market median. Revenue is down 75% on the market; 10 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $32k (exactly $32,311) |
|---|---|
| Median | $73k (exactly $73,127) |
| Top 25% | $167k (exactly $166,839) |
| Top 5% | $3.9M (exactly $3,891,254) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 15 |
| Released games | 28 |
| Announced | 10 |
| Effort | 3 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | High |
| Typical price | $14.99 |
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 75% on the market, supply 50% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 25%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is high: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Cooking
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
- Artificial Intelligence
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 3 / 10 · small 2D action, light systems
- Systems
- Cooking
- Price point
- $14.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 10 games average 85% positive over 11,200 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $33k. 4 in 10 of the 7 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 10 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Cooking with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Job SimulatorFair
- + DogsFair
- + Turn-Based CombatFair
- + Point & ClickFair
- + LogicFair
- + Score AttackFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + PuzzleFair
- + JRPGPoor odds
- + LGBTQ+Poor odds
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + Post-apocalypticPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Fast Food Simulator | · EA | $14.99 | 8,653 86% | 260k | $3.9M (exactly $3,891,254) | No Ceiling Games |
| | Shawarma Legend | older | $2.99 | 7,210 92% | 216k | $647k (exactly $646,737) | Eyad Alshafei |
| | Sunset Motel | $18.99 | 728 77% | 22k | $415k (exactly $414,742) | Efkey Studios | |
| | Chocolate Factory Simulator | $19.99 | 355 72% | 11k | $213k (exactly $212,893) | Games Incubator | |
| | Feed the Scorchpot | $14.99 | 371 87% | 11k | $167k (exactly $166,839) | Moravian | |
| | Bowling Alley Simulator | $14.99 | 251 90% | 7.5k | $113k (exactly $112,875) | Vulcron | |
| | Deep Blue Sushi | · EA | $14.99 | 212 75% | 6.4k | $95k (exactly $95,336) | PaperPixel Games |
| | WorldNeverland - Daily Life in the Elnea Kingdom - Another Life Adventure | $29.99 | 92 78% | 2.8k | $83k (exactly $82,772) | althi Inc. | |
| | Night Rolls Cozy Store | $9.99 | 244 89% | 7.3k | $73k (exactly $73,127) | Polytale Games | |
| | BM Love Cafe | $7.99 | 204 77% | 6.1k | $49k (exactly $48,899) | zzzgame | |
| | Chicken Fries | $11.99 | 90 65% | 2.7k | $32k (exactly $32,373) | Turquoise Games |
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.