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Should I ship a Bullet Hell Simulation game?
Simulation + Bullet Hell
Of 117 developers who shipped a Bullet Hell Simulation 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.. 129 more are announced.
Verdict: dead, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $420 in the last 2 years and $450 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 5 / 10 build. 77 developers shipped in the last year and 129 games are announced.
| Bottom 30% | $89 (exactly $89) |
|---|---|
| Median | $419 (exactly $419) |
| Top 25% | $3.1k (exactly $3,058) |
| Top 5% | $98k (exactly $98,116) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 117 |
| Released games | 334 |
| Announced | 129 |
| Effort | 5 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $4.99 |
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 30% on the market, supply 90% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 7%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Simulation
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
- Bullet Hell
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
- Systems
- Simulation, Bullet Hell; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Arcade, Roguelite
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 88% positive over 7,373 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $89. 9 in 10 of the 51 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 129 games are announced against 77 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Simulation with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Escape RoomStrong odds
- + World War IFair
- + Job SimulatorFair
- + LGBTQ+Fair
- + PinballFair
- + Female ProtagonistFair
- + BirdsFair
- + Artificial IntelligenceFair
- + MusicFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + ProgrammingFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Atomicrops | older | $14.99 | 5,134 93% | 154k | $2.3M (exactly $2,308,760) | Bird Bath Games |
| | Battle Ram | older | $29.99 | 2,204 85% | 66k | $2.0M (exactly $1,982,939) | Runic Rise Games |
| | Reassembly | older | $14.99 | 3,611 94% | 108k | $1.6M (exactly $1,623,867) | Anisoptera Games |
| | LUFTRAUSERS | older | $9.99 | 3,398 91% | 102k | $1.0M (exactly $1,018,381) | Vlambeer |
| | ShapeHero Factory | $23.99 | 991 88% | 30k | $713k (exactly $713,223) | Asobism.Co.,Ltd | |
| | Be My Horde | · EA older | $9.99 | 2,052 85% | 62k | $615k (exactly $614,984) | Polished Games |
| | Fantasy Maiden Wars - DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER - | $34.99 | 582 98% | 17k | $611k (exactly $610,925) | さんぼん堂 | |
| | Disney•Pixar Cars 2: The Video Game | older | $19.99 | 970 79% | 29k | $582k (exactly $581,709) | Avalanche Software |
| | Astro Prospector | $4.99 | 3,223 91% | 97k | $482k (exactly $482,483) | Incrementalist | |
| | Necrosmith | older | $2.99 | 4,885 85% | 147k | $438k (exactly $438,185) | Alawar |
| | Gigantes Ex Machina | · EA | $14.99 | 300 84% | 9.0k | $135k (exactly $134,910) | AcrylByte, SEO INSEOK |
| | Void Miner – Incremental Asteroids Roguelite | $5.99 | 698 83% | 21k | $125k (exactly $125,431) | RyanJakob | |
| | Minutescape | $5.99 | 546 74% | 16k | $98k (exactly $98,116) | Molter | |
| | Slimekeep | $14.99 | 109 87% | 3.3k | $49k (exactly $49,017) | BenBonk | |
| | DEFRAG | $2.99 | 534 93% | 16k | $48k (exactly $47,900) | BlueDot Studio | |
| | Antivirus PROTOCOL | $4.99 | 313 87% | 9.4k | $47k (exactly $46,856) | FIREHIVE Studio | |
| | ArmorSim | · EA | $18.99 | 77 57% | 2.3k | $44k (exactly $43,867) | Timerlan Galimov |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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