Games › Automation › Automation + Transportation
Should I ship a Transportation Automation game?
Automation + Transportation
Of 30 developers who shipped a Transportation Automation 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.. 76 more are announced, ×3.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $5.3k, ×8.4 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $1.7k; 1 in 20 cleared $12M, ×19836 the market median. Revenue is down 95% on the market; 76 games are announced against 20 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $1.7k (exactly $1,678) |
|---|---|
| Median | $5.3k (exactly $5,273) |
| Top 25% | $113k (exactly $113,205) |
| Top 5% | $12M (exactly $12,457,246) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 30 |
| Released games | 73 |
| Announced | 76 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $7.99 |
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 95% on the market, supply 100% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 11%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Automation
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Transportation
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Automation, Transportation; 9 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Building, Simulation, Base Building
- Price point
- $7.99 typical · top 25% priced $39.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $39.99 or above; the middle game at $7.99.
The top 10 games average 85% positive over 35,099 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $1.7k. 5 in 10 of the 11 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 76 games are announced against 20 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.8 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Automation with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Job SimulatorStrong odds
- + Female ProtagonistStrong odds
- + Open World Survival CraftFair
- + HorrorFair
- + HistoricalFair
- + UndergroundFair
- + Class-BasedFair
- + MiningFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + ProgrammingFair
- + FishingFair
- + Turn-Based TacticsFair
Comparable games
RoadCraft 2025 · $16M 
shapez 2 - Factory 2026 · $12M 
Captain of Industry 2022 · EA · $12M 
Airport CEO 2021 · $5.8M 
Rise of Industry 2019 · $2.8M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | RoadCraft | $39.99 | 13,527 74% | 406k | $16M (exactly $16,228,342) | Saber Interactive | |
| | shapez 2 - Factory | $29.99 | 13,846 96% | 415k | $12M (exactly $12,457,246) | tobspr Games | |
| | Captain of Industry | · EA older | $34.99 | 11,027 90% | 331k | $12M (exactly $11,575,042) | MaFi Games |
| | Airport CEO | older | $24.99 | 7,752 83% | 233k | $5.8M (exactly $5,811,674) | Apog Labs |
| | Rise of Industry | older | $29.99 | 3,122 74% | 94k | $2.8M (exactly $2,808,863) | Dapper Penguin Studios |
 | Factory Town | older | $19.99 | 4,142 90% | 124k | $2.5M (exactly $2,483,957) | Erik Asmussen |
 | Rail Route | older | $24.99 | 2,400 88% | 72k | $1.8M (exactly $1,799,280) | Bitrich.info |
 | Plan B: Terraform | $15.99 | 3,526 91% | 106k | $1.7M (exactly $1,691,422) | Gaddy Games | |
 | InfraSpace | older | $24.99 | 1,638 82% | 49k | $1.2M (exactly $1,228,009) | Dionic Software |
 | Voxel Tycoon | · EA older | $24.99 | 1,557 78% | 47k | $1.2M (exactly $1,167,283) | Voxel Tycoon |
 | Ore Factory Squad ⛏️ | $12.99 | 1,646 87% | 49k | $641k (exactly $641,446) | threeW | |
 | Subway Builder | $39.99 | 394 59% | 12k | $473k (exactly $472,682) | Colin Miller, EJ Fox, Curran Kelleher,… (Colin Miller, EJ Fox, Curran Kelleher, Nate Maue, Alex Wohlbruck, Piero Maddaleni, Brooks Flannery) | |
 | Fuel Harvest Together | $13.99 | 879 69% | 26k | $369k (exactly $368,916) | Say2Sun | |
 | Mini Settlers | $12.99 | 592 85% | 18k | $231k (exactly $230,702) | Knight Owl Games | |
 | Factory Town 2: Paradise | · EA | $24.99 | 151 89% | 4.5k | $113k (exactly $113,205) | Erik Asmussen |
 | Super Loco World - Cozy Train Automation | $9.99 | 329 76% | 9.9k | $99k (exactly $98,601) | Andrii Bychkovskyi | |
 | PROFITS 2167: Planetary Resource Optimization & Freight Infrastructure Technician Simulator | · EA | $6.99 | 209 98% | 6.3k | $44k (exactly $43,827) | Simple Software Solutions |
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.