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Should I ship a Base Building Destruction game?
Destruction + Base Building
Of 32 developers who shipped a Base Building Destruction 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.. 98 more are announced, ×5.4 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.6k, ×4.2 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $420; 1 in 20 cleared $16M, ×25841 the market median. Revenue is up 215% on the market; 98 games are announced against 18 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $420 (exactly $420) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.6k (exactly $2,637) |
| Top 25% | $222k (exactly $221,911) |
| Top 5% | $16M (exactly $16,228,342) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 32 |
| Released games | 85 |
| Announced | 98 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $13.99 |
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 215% on the market, supply 30% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 14%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Destruction
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Base Building
- 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
- Destruction, Base Building; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Building, Action, Combat
- Price point
- $13.99 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 $13.99.
The top 10 games average 80% positive over 77,267 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $420. 7 in 10 of the 15 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 98 games are announced against 18 developers who shipped in the last year, ×5.4 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Destruction with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Space SimFair
- + ModernFair
- + God GameFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Hack and SlashPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + CapitalismPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + Automobile SimPoor odds
- + ManagementPoor odds
- + AutomationPoor odds
Comparable games
WARDOGS 2026 · EA · $70M 
RoadCraft 2025 · $16M 
Gas Station Simulator 2021 · $14M 
Planetary Annihilation: TITANS 2015 · $10M 
Stranded: Alien Dawn 2023 · $10M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | WARDOGS | · EA | $39.99 | 58,250 81% | 1.7M | $70M (exactly $69,882,525) | BULKHEAD |
| | RoadCraft | $39.99 | 13,527 74% | 406k | $16M (exactly $16,228,342) | Saber Interactive | |
| | Gas Station Simulator | older | $19.99 | 23,839 88% | 715k | $14M (exactly $14,296,248) | DRAGO entertainment |
| | Planetary Annihilation: TITANS | older | $29.99 | 11,401 84% | 342k | $10M (exactly $10,257,480) | Planetary Annihilation Inc |
| | Stranded: Alien Dawn | older | $34.99 | 9,715 84% | 291k | $10M (exactly $10,197,836) | Haemimont Games |
 | Forts | older | $14.99 | 21,216 92% | 636k | $9.5M (exactly $9,540,835) | EarthWork Games |
 | Severed Steel | older | $24.99 | 8,880 95% | 266k | $6.7M (exactly $6,657,336) | Greylock Studio |
 | DYSMANTLE | older | $19.99 | 11,022 91% | 331k | $6.6M (exactly $6,609,893) | 10tons Ltd |
 | Taur | older | $24.99 | 2,011 79% | 60k | $1.5M (exactly $1,507,647) | Echo Entertainment |
 | Ruinarch | older | $24.99 | 1,336 62% | 40k | $1.0M (exactly $1,001,599) | Maccima Games LLC |
 | The Scouring | · EA | $24.99 | 1,136 88% | 34k | $852k (exactly $851,659) | Orc Group |
 | Vietnam War | · EA | $14.99 | 1,704 84% | 51k | $766k (exactly $766,289) | Thorium Game Lab |
 | Lay of the Land | $19.99 | 1,190 79% | 36k | $714k (exactly $713,643) | Southern Cross Interactive | |
 | Annihilate The Spance | · EA | $29.99 | 347 90% | 10k | $312k (exactly $312,196) | Skyglow Softworks |
 | Castle Craft | $19.99 | 480 82% | 14k | $288k (exactly $287,856) | Twin Earth | |
 | DYSPLACED | · EA | $24.99 | 296 87% | 8.9k | $222k (exactly $221,911) | 10tons Ltd |
 | Dawn Apart | · EA | $19.99 | 245 68% | 7.4k | $147k (exactly $146,926) | Industrial Technology and Witchcraft |
 | Territory Control 2 | · EA | $19.99 | 92 77% | 2.8k | $55k (exactly $55,172) | TFlippy, Knorrepot |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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