Do I ship it?

Games › Vehicular Combat › Vehicular Combat + Building

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Building Vehicular Combat game?

Vehicular Combat + Building

Only 14 developers shipped a Building Vehicular Combat 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.. 40 more are announced, ×4.4 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

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

The middle developer here made $300k, ×483 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $2.6k; 1 in 20 cleared $2.8M, ×4587 the market median. Revenue is down 100% on the market; 40 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 483.2 times the market baseline, revenue down 100% on the market, 40 announced, ×4.4 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Vehicular Combat + Building
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 14
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $164k → $641k → $303k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Vehicular Combat + Building: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 14
Bottom 30% $2.5k (exactly $2,545)
Median $303k (exactly $303,448)
Top 25% $761k (exactly $761,019)
Top 5% $2.9M (exactly $2,880,839)
Developers, 2 yr 14
Released games 58
Announced 40
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $16.88

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 100% on the market, supply 80% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 12%, 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.

Vehicular Combat
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Building
effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 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
Vehicular Combat, Building; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action-Adventure, Automation, Base Building
Price point
$16.88 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
Art
5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, First-Person
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $16.88.

The top 10 games average 85% positive over 10,080 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $2.6k, median $300k, 1 in 4 over $760k, 1 in 20 over $2.8M.

3 in 10 developers made under $2.6k. 4 in 10 of the 5 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 40 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.4 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Vehicular Combat with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Looter ShooterFair11 devs · median $15k · 14 announced
  2. + Online Co-OpPoor odds29 devs · median $62k · 75 announced
  3. + Co-opPoor odds38 devs · median $32k · 101 announced
  4. + HistoricalPoor odds16 devs · median $32k · 36 announced
  5. + CraftingPoor odds14 devs · median $20k · 43 announced
  6. + Open WorldPoor odds45 devs · median $15k · 97 announced
  7. + ManagementPoor odds21 devs · median $13k · 36 announced
  8. + SandboxPoor odds25 devs · median $10k · 70 announced
  9. + Real Time TacticsPoor odds20 devs · median $9.6k · 50 announced
  10. + ModernPoor odds18 devs · median $8.6k · 25 announced
  11. + MechsPoor odds24 devs · median $4.8k · 52 announced
  12. + Female ProtagonistPoor odds14 devs · median $4.8k · 32 announced

All 98 pairs on the Vehicular Combat page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Trailmakers 2019 · $25M Besiege 2020 · $22M TerraTech 2018 · $15M Avorion 2020 · $9.7M From the Depths 2020 · $8.3M
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Trailmakers older $24.99 33,465 92% 1.0M $25M (exactly $25,088,710) Flashbulb
Besiege older $14.99 48,045 95% 1.4M $22M (exactly $21,605,836) Spiderling Studios
TerraTech older $24.99 20,564 92% 617k $15M (exactly $15,416,831) Payload Studios
Avorion older $24.99 13,001 90% 390k $9.7M (exactly $9,746,850) Boxelware
From the Depths older $24.99 11,059 89% 332k $8.3M (exactly $8,290,932) Brilliant Skies Ltd.
Sprocket · EA older $19.99 12,336 92% 370k $7.4M (exactly $7,397,899) Hamish Dunn
Airships: Conquer the Skies older $24.99 6,197 95% 186k $4.6M (exactly $4,645,891) David Stark
SimplePlanes older $12.99 9,811 93% 294k $3.8M (exactly $3,823,347) Jundroo, LLC
Pax Autocratica · EA $29.99 3,202 91% 96k $2.9M (exactly $2,880,839) Multiverse
TerraTech Worlds · EA older $29.99 2,027 62% 61k $1.8M (exactly $1,823,692) Payload Studios
SimplePlanes 2 · EA $19.99 1,316 92% 39k $789k (exactly $789,205) Jundroo, LLC
Vietnam War · EA $14.99 1,704 84% 51k $766k (exactly $766,289) Thorium Game Lab
Brickadia · EA $19.99 1,269 81% 38k $761k (exactly $761,019) Brickadia, LLC
Badlands Crew - Drive, Command, Conquer $18.99 1,126 78% 34k $641k (exactly $641,482) Runner Duck
Human Host · EA $16.88 866 83% 26k $439k (exactly $438,542) Virtual Matrix Studio
Echoes of Elysium · EA $19.99 506 61% 15k $303k (exactly $303,448) Loric Games, Inc.
Carnaval Simulator $10.99 60 93% 1.8k $20k (exactly $19,782) JBA Software Development
Clank-Robotics $6.99 14 92% 420 $2.9k (exactly $2,936) Clank Studios
SpaceCraft Brawl $4.99 17 94% 510 $2.5k (exactly $2,545) ruploz

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