Do I ship it?

Games › Survival › Survival + Bullet Hell

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Bullet Hell Survival game?

Survival + Bullet Hell

Of 485 developers who shipped a Bullet Hell Survival 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.. 490 more are announced.

Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $430 in the last 2 years and $480 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 6 / 10 build. 289 developers shipped in the last year and 490 games are announced.

Deciding numbers: median 0.7 times the market baseline, revenue down 10% on the market, 490 announced, ×1.7 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Survival + Bullet Hell
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 485
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $1.6k → $449 → $538 → $1.1k → $539 → $716 → $359 (still earning) → $150 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Survival + Bullet Hell: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 485
Bottom 30% $150 (exactly $150)
Median $430 (exactly $430)
Top 25% $2.7k (exactly $2,695)
Top 5% $98k (exactly $98,116)
Developers, 2 yr 485
Released games 948
Announced 490
Effort 6 / 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 10% on the market, supply 45% 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.

Survival
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Bullet Hell
effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high 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
Survival, Bullet Hell; 9 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Action Roguelike, Roguelite
Price point
$4.99 typical · top 25% priced $9.99 or above
Art
3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Top-Down, Pixel Graphics
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $9.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.

The top 10 games average 91% positive over 137,951 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $150, median $430, 1 in 4 over $2.6k, 1 in 20 over $98k.

3 in 10 developers made under $150. 9 in 10 of the 221 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 490 games are announced against 289 developers who shipped in the last year.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

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

  1. + FMVStrong odds14 devs · median $74k · 10 announced
  2. + Social DeductionFair31 devs · median $6.2k · 35 announced
  3. + Word GameFair22 devs · median $2.1k · 29 announced
  4. + CatsFair33 devs · median $1.2k · 34 announced
  5. + CollectathonFair77 devs · median $1.0k · 84 announced
  6. + IdlerFair96 devs · median $836 · 99 announced
  7. + Auto BattlerFair79 devs · median $807 · 90 announced
  8. + IncrementalFair101 devs · median $599 · 130 announced
  9. + DogsFair20 devs · median $535 · 19 announced
  10. + Martial ArtsLong shot19 devs · median $419 · 17 announced
  11. + Boomer ShooterLong shot39 devs · median $359 · 32 announced
  12. + DiplomacyPoor odds16 devs · median $100k · 28 announced

All 234 pairs on the Survival page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Risk of Rain 2 2020 · $180M Megabonk 2025 · $30M Brotato 2023 · $17M The Binding of Isaac 2011 · $7.4M Yet Another Zombie Survivors 2026 · $6.4M
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Risk of Rain 2 older $24.99 240,001 93% 7.2M $180M (exactly $179,928,750) Hopoo Games
Megabonk $9.99 100,202 94% 3.0M $30M (exactly $30,030,539) vedinad
Brotato older $4.99 111,407 95% 3.3M $17M (exactly $16,677,628) Blobfish
The Binding of Isaac older $4.99 49,208 94% 1.5M $7.4M (exactly $7,366,438) Edmund McMillen, Florian Himsl
Yet Another Zombie Survivors $14.99 14,123 91% 424k $6.4M (exactly $6,351,113) Awesome Games Studio
20 Minutes Till Dawn older $4.99 27,872 90% 836k $4.2M (exactly $4,172,438) flanne
Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos $12.99 6,281 68% 188k $2.4M (exactly $2,447,706) NANOO
Atomicrops older $14.99 5,134 93% 154k $2.3M (exactly $2,308,760) Bird Bath Games
Devil Daggers older $9.99 7,442 96% 223k $2.2M (exactly $2,230,367) Sorath
Pathogenic $9.99 4,145 92% 124k $1.2M (exactly $1,242,256) Aberrant Labs
R.I.P. - Reincarnation Insurance Program $14.99 2,727 76% 82k $1.2M (exactly $1,226,332) WarmCore Studio
Vampire Hunters $14.99 1,941 89% 58k $873k (exactly $872,868) Gamecraft Studios
Monsters are Coming! $8.99 2,718 79% 82k $733k (exactly $733,045) Ludogram
Arms of God · EA $11.50 1,871 88% 56k $645k (exactly $645,495) Dark Jay Studio
TerraTech Legion $9.99 2,109 81% 63k $632k (exactly $632,067) Payload Studios
Hell Maiden · EA $9.99 1,834 90% 55k $550k (exactly $549,650) AstralShift

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