Do I ship it?

Games › Base Building › Base Building + Mechs

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Mech Base Building game?

Base Building + Mechs

Only 15 developers shipped a Mech 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, Pax Autocratica, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 47 more are announced, ×4.3 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $990, ×1.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $60; 1 in 20 cleared $2.8M, ×4587 the market median. Revenue is down 50% on the market; 47 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 1.6 times the market baseline, revenue down 50% on the market, 47 announced, ×4.3 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Base Building + Mechs
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 15
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $90k → $807 → $3.6k → $27k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Base Building + Mechs: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 15
Bottom 30% $60 (exactly $60)
Median $989 (exactly $989)
Top 25% $32k (exactly $32,384)
Top 5% $2.9M (exactly $2,880,839)
Developers, 2 yr 15
Released games 50
Announced 47
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $10.99

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 50% on the market, supply 175% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 8%, excluded from money figures.

See every window in the explorer →

Plate 2 · systems and tooling

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
Mechs
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
Systems
Base Building
Price point
$10.99 typical
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 10 games average 90% positive over 3,705 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $60, median $990, 1 in 4 over $32k, 1 in 20 over $2.8M.

3 in 10 developers made under $60. All of the 5 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 47 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.3 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Base Building with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + ProgrammingFair13 devs · median $53k · 21 announced
  2. + DwarvesFair12 devs · median $13k · 19 announced
  3. + Bullet HellFair61 devs · median $540 · 67 announced
  4. + DiplomacyPoor odds19 devs · median $520k · 47 announced
  5. + SailingPoor odds9 devs · median $356k · 38 announced
  6. + Dating SimPoor odds19 devs · median $128k · 21 announced
  7. + TrainsPoor odds19 devs · median $113k · 47 announced
  8. + Real-Time with PausePoor odds20 devs · median $73k · 35 announced
  9. + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds130 devs · median $72k · 262 announced
  10. + UndergroundPoor odds12 devs · median $65k · 71 announced
  11. + MarsPoor odds15 devs · median $58k · 28 announced
  12. + HistoricalPoor odds81 devs · median $58k · 175 announced

All 175 pairs on the Base Building page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Generation Zero® 2019 · $22M Iron Harvest 2020 · $11M Planetary Annihilation: TITANS 2015 · $10M Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense 2021 · $9.5M Supreme Commander 2 2010 · $3.3M
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Generation Zero® older $24.99 29,115 75% 873k $22M (exactly $21,827,516) Systemic Reaction™
Iron Harvest older $29.99 11,682 74% 350k $11M (exactly $10,510,295) KING Art
Planetary Annihilation: TITANS older $29.99 11,401 84% 342k $10M (exactly $10,257,480) Planetary Annihilation Inc
Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense older $24.99 12,607 86% 378k $9.5M (exactly $9,451,468) AutoAttack Games
Supreme Commander 2 older $12.99 8,349 87% 250k $3.3M (exactly $3,253,605) Gas Powered Games
Lightyear Frontier · EA older $24.99 4,257 83% 128k $3.2M (exactly $3,191,473) FRAME BREAK
CryoFall older $19.99 4,905 78% 147k $2.9M (exactly $2,941,528) AtomicTorch Studio
Pax Autocratica · EA $29.99 3,202 91% 96k $2.9M (exactly $2,880,839) Multiverse
Grey Goo older $29.99 2,602 69% 78k $2.3M (exactly $2,341,019) Petroglyph, Six Foot
Rusted Warfare - RTS older $4.99 6,619 96% 199k $991k (exactly $990,864) Corroding Games
Bounty Star $24.99 159 65% 4.8k $119k (exactly $119,202) DINOGOD
ShellMobile: Titan Rampart $5.99 181 97% 5.4k $33k (exactly $32,526) 红景天娱乐
WARSHIFT 2 $19.99 54 70% 1.6k $32k (exactly $32,384) Cyril Megem
Tactical Annihilation $15.99 56 98% 1.7k $27k (exactly $26,863) B.G. Game Studio
WarOS · EA $19.99 29 72% 870 $17k (exactly $17,391) The7 Studio
Citadel Anew $11.99 10 50% 300 $3.6k (exactly $3,597) Radical Byte
Zombocalypse Now! $10.99 3 66% 90 $989 (exactly $989) Pixel Drip Games
FEBA Gunship R $2.99 9 100% 270 $807 (exactly $807) rucsgames
AeroSpace Engineering | Sandbox $1.99 2 50% 60 $119 (exactly $119) MasterBuild

Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.