Games › Tabletop › Tabletop + Artificial Intelligence
Should I ship an AI Tabletop game?
Tabletop + Artificial Intelligence
Of 39 developers who shipped an AI Tabletop 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.. 53 more are announced.
Verdict: fair, for a 3 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $510, ×1.1 the market's $480 for a 3 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $50. Revenue is up 10% on the market; 53 games are announced against 30 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $0 (exactly $0) |
|---|---|
| Median | $505 (exactly $505) |
| Top 25% | $2.6k (exactly $2,637) |
| Top 5% | $261k (exactly $261,276) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 39 |
| Released games | 138 |
| Announced | 53 |
| Effort | 3 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | High |
| Typical price | $2.99 |
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 200% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 15%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is high: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Tabletop
- effort 2 / 10 · high · effort 2 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
- Tabletop; 7 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Strategy, Board Game, Turn-Based Strategy
- Price point
- $2.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Realistic
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $2.99.
The top 10 games average 88% positive over 2,212 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $50. 9 in 10 of the 15 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 53 games are announced against 30 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Tabletop with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + BuildingFair
- + CRPGFair
- + RTSFair
- + MilitaryFair
- + HistoricalFair
- + DragonsFair
- + MahjongFair
- + WargameFair
- + SpaceFair
- + CapitalismFair
- + HorrorFair
- + Local Co-OpFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Moonbreaker | older | $29.99 | 1,289 84% | 39k | $1.2M (exactly $1,159,713) | Unknown Worlds Entertainment |
| | Radio Commander: Vietnam '64 | older | $19.99 | 1,764 72% | 53k | $1.1M (exactly $1,057,871) | Serious Sim |
| | HackHub - Ultimate Hacker Simulator | $16.99 | 937 88% | 28k | $478k (exactly $477,589) | HotBunny | |
| | The Conquest of Go | $14.99 | 581 94% | 17k | $261k (exactly $261,276) | Wolfey Studios | |
| | Feed the Scorchpot | $14.99 | 371 87% | 11k | $167k (exactly $166,839) | Moravian | |
| | Pure Chess Grandmaster Edition | older | $15.99 | 233 74% | 7.0k | $112k (exactly $111,770) | Ripstone |
| | Mr. President | $19.99 | 162 75% | 4.9k | $97k (exactly $97,151) | Exia Labs | |
| | Roll Player - The Board Game | older | $14.99 | 180 91% | 5.4k | $81k (exactly $80,946) | Mipmap Digital |
| | Dark Chess | older | $12.99 | 155 76% | 4.7k | $60k (exactly $60,404) | Tall Troll Games |
| | Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure (Chess) | older | $19.99 | 99 74% | 3.0k | $59k (exactly $59,370) | Pixel Wizards |
| | K2: Digital Edition | $14.99 | 20 85% | 600 | $9.0k (exactly $8,994) | Devon Games | |
| | AI Faith: Compute [>_AIFC] | $4.99 | 55 81% | 1.7k | $8.2k (exactly $8,234) | Beneloop.ai | |
| | Chess Kingdom | $4.99 | 45 91% | 1.4k | $6.7k (exactly $6,736) | Pinch Games | |
| | okey.gg | · EA | $9.99 | 16 50% | 480 | $4.8k (exactly $4,795) | yilmaz.games |
| | Chesscent | $7.99 | 14 64% | 420 | $3.4k (exactly $3,356) | Alex did it | |
| | Sente | $7.99 | 11 100% | 330 | $2.6k (exactly $2,637) | Oxobox Games Studios |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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