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Should I ship a Dinosaur Base Building game?
Base Building + Dinosaurs
Only 13 developers shipped a Dinosaur Base Building 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, Jurassic World Evolution 3, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 32 more are announced, ×3.6 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $16k, ×26 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $900; 1 in 20 cleared $20M, ×32632 the market median. Revenue is flat on the market; 32 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $898 (exactly $898) |
|---|---|
| Median | $16k (exactly $16,189) |
| Top 25% | $73k (exactly $73,163) |
| Top 5% | $20M (exactly $20,493,184) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 13 |
| Released games | 31 |
| Announced | 32 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $9.99 |
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 flat on the market, supply 125% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 3%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Base Building
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
- Dinosaurs
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Base Building; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Strategy, Building, Action
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $59.99 or above
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $59.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 92% positive over 12,985 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $900. 32 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.6 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Base Building with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + ProgrammingFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + Bullet HellFair
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
- + SailingPoor odds
- + Dating SimPoor odds
- + TrainsPoor odds
- + Real-Time with PausePoor odds
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + UndergroundPoor odds
- + MarsPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
Comparable games
ARK: Survival Evolved 2017 · $264M 
ARK: Survival Ascended 2023 · EA · $144M 
Jurassic World Evolution 2 2021 · $71M 
Jurassic World Evolution 3 2025 · $20M 
PixARK 2019 · $6.7M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ARK: Survival Evolved | older | $14.99 | 586,768 83% | 18M | $264M (exactly $263,869,570) | Studio Wildcard, Instinct Games, Efecto… (Studio Wildcard, Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, Virtual Basement LLC) |
| | ARK: Survival Ascended | · EA older | $44.99 | 106,761 60% | 3.2M | $144M (exactly $144,095,322) | Studio Wildcard, Grove Street Games, In… (Studio Wildcard, Grove Street Games, Instinct Games) |
| | Jurassic World Evolution 2 | older | $59.99 | 39,644 90% | 1.2M | $71M (exactly $71,347,307) | Frontier Developments |
| | Jurassic World Evolution 3 | $59.99 | 11,387 93% | 342k | $20M (exactly $20,493,184) | Frontier Developments | |
| | PixARK | older | $19.99 | 11,142 73% | 334k | $6.7M (exactly $6,681,857) | Snail Games USA |
 | Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival | older | $19.99 | 807 69% | 24k | $484k (exactly $483,958) | Tbjbu2 |
 | Dinotica | $17.99 | 746 86% | 22k | $403k (exactly $402,616) | XA Studio | |
 | Robinson: The Journey | older | $19.99 | 522 56% | 16k | $313k (exactly $313,043) | Crytek |
 | Tamer: King of Dinosaurs | · EA | $24.99 | 347 86% | 10k | $260k (exactly $260,146) | Ride the Lion Studios |
 | The Hive | older | $19.99 | 299 71% | 9.0k | $179k (exactly $179,310) | Skydome Entertainment |
 | Repterra | $19.99 | 122 90% | 3.7k | $73k (exactly $73,163) | Chute Apps | |
 | Dinosaur World | · EA | $14.99 | 157 61% | 4.7k | $71k (exactly $70,603) | Dinosaur Studio |
 | Mesorift Survival | · EA | $7.99 | 124 67% | 3.7k | $30k (exactly $29,723) | Meik.W Interactive |
 | Demiurges | $14.99 | 36 88% | 1.1k | $16k (exactly $16,189) | Berih | |
 | Happy Monster | · EA | $8.99 | 41 82% | 1.2k | $11k (exactly $11,058) | Destined Game Studio |
 | Never Ending Beyond | $9.99 | 20 80% | 600 | $6.0k (exactly $5,994) | One More Dream Studios | |
 | Jurassic Gym | $5.99 | 5 100% | 150 | $898 (exactly $898) | Mega Dwarf |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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