Games › Survival › Survival + Auto Battler
Should I ship an Auto Battler Survival game?
Survival + Auto Battler
Of 79 developers who shipped an Auto Battler Survival 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.. 90 more are announced.
Verdict: fair, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $810, ×1.3 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $180. Revenue is down 20% on the market; 90 games are announced against 52 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $180 (exactly $180) |
|---|---|
| Median | $807 (exactly $807) |
| Top 25% | $5.9k (exactly $5,872) |
| Top 5% | $90k (exactly $89,910) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 79 |
| Released games | 135 |
| Announced | 90 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $4.99 |
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 20% on the market, supply 95% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 10%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Survival
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Auto Battler
- 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
- Survival, Auto Battler; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Strategy, Management, Roguelike
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $11.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Top-Down, 2D, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $11.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 84% positive over 5,346 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 7 in 10 of the 31 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 90 games are announced against 52 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Survival with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Social DeductionFair
- + Word GameFair
- + CatsFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + DogsFair
- + Martial ArtsLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
- + SteampunkPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense | older | $24.99 | 12,607 86% | 378k | $9.5M (exactly $9,451,468) | AutoAttack Games |
| | Bad North: Jotunn Edition | older | $14.99 | 12,344 93% | 370k | $5.6M (exactly $5,551,097) | Plausible Concept, Oskar Stålberg |
| | Despot's Game: Dystopian Battle Simulator | older | $19.99 | 2,878 83% | 86k | $1.7M (exactly $1,725,937) | Konfa Games |
| | The Last Flame | $19.99 | 2,744 85% | 82k | $1.6M (exactly $1,645,577) | Hotloop | |
| | Garbage | older | $14.99 | 1,003 66% | 30k | $451k (exactly $451,049) | Homebased |
| | Nomad Survival | older | $4.99 | 1,517 87% | 46k | $227k (exactly $227,095) | The Fox Knocks |
| | Poly TD | $7.99 | 587 82% | 18k | $141k (exactly $140,704) | Naroot | |
| | Wireworks | $6.99 | 614 89% | 18k | $129k (exactly $128,756) | JJJ | |
| | Candy Disaster - Tower Defense | older | $13.99 | 250 81% | 7.5k | $105k (exactly $104,925) | ACE Entertainment |
| | Infinite Tao | older | $3.99 | 852 79% | 26k | $102k (exactly $101,984) | insomnia |
| | City Defense Z | $9.99 | 300 74% | 9.0k | $90k (exactly $89,910) | Good Mood Games | |
| | Abyss Kitchen | $11.99 | 202 89% | 6.1k | $73k (exactly $72,659) | Pico Games | |
| | Kingdom Ascension | $11.99 | 200 82% | 6.0k | $72k (exactly $71,940) | RainRingStudio | |
| | All Aboard! The Train Defense Express | $4.99 | 379 84% | 11k | $57k (exactly $56,736) | Likadev | |
| | Folk Emerging | $24.99 | 73 86% | 2.2k | $55k (exactly $54,728) | Curious Dynamics | |
| | Mythic Battlegrounds: Demonic Siege | $14.99 | 80 73% | 2.4k | $36k (exactly $35,976) | DochiGames | |
| | Incrempire | $6.99 | 167 68% | 5.0k | $35k (exactly $35,020) | FMGames, Regnum Noctis |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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