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Should I ship a Character Customization Collectathon game?
Character Customization + Collectathon
Of 164 developers who shipped a Character Customization Collectathon 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.. 278 more are announced, ×2.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.9k, ×3.1 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $540; 1 in 20 cleared $430k, ×687 the market median. Revenue is down 10% on the market; 278 games are announced against 98 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $539 (exactly $539) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.9k (exactly $1,946) |
| Top 25% | $39k (exactly $39,124) |
| Top 5% | $431k (exactly $431,184) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 164 |
| Released games | 361 |
| Announced | 278 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $6.99 |
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: 14%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Character Customization
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Collectathon
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, Collectathon; 3 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Exploration, Simulation, Action
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Colorful, Cute, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 94% positive over 100,033 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $540. 7 in 10 of the 72 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 278 games are announced against 98 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.8 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Character Customization with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Football (American)Strong odds
- + Real-TimeStrong odds
- + Music-Based Procedural GenerationFair
- + TransportationFair
- + MinigamesFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + BikesFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + GamblingFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + TypingFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Temtem | older | $44.99 | 31,263 82% | 938k | $42M (exactly $42,195,671) | Crema |
| | Digimon Story Time Stranger | $69.99 | 15,845 89% | 475k | $33M (exactly $33,269,746) | Media.Vision Inc. | |
| | INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road | $69.99 | 11,180 88% | 335k | $23M (exactly $23,474,646) | LEVEL5 Inc. | |
| | WEBFISHING | $4.99 | 57,353 97% | 1.7M | $8.6M (exactly $8,585,744) | lamedeveloper | |
| | LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame | older | $19.99 | 12,850 89% | 386k | $7.7M (exactly $7,706,145) | Traveller's Tales |
| | LEGO® DC Super-Villains | older | $39.99 | 5,798 91% | 174k | $7.0M (exactly $6,955,861) | TT Games, Feral Interactive (Mac) |
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
| | Coromon | older | $19.99 | 6,327 85% | 190k | $3.8M (exactly $3,794,302) | TRAGsoft |
| | Cozy Grove | older | $14.99 | 7,512 89% | 225k | $3.4M (exactly $3,378,146) | Spry Fox |
| | Littlewood | older | $14.99 | 6,083 93% | 182k | $2.7M (exactly $2,735,525) | Sean Young |
| | Yooka-Replaylee | $29.99 | 1,045 92% | 31k | $940k (exactly $940,186) | Playtonic Games | |
| | Sledding Game | · EA | $7.99 | 2,915 96% | 87k | $699k (exactly $698,726) | The Sledding Corporation |
| | Metal Bringer | $19.99 | 1,109 87% | 33k | $665k (exactly $665,067) | ALPHAWING Inc. | |
| | Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle | $18.99 | 950 71% | 29k | $541k (exactly $541,215) | KTMG LLC. | |
| | Find Matt's Cats | $19.99 | 719 98% | 22k | $431k (exactly $431,184) | Matt Roszak | |
| | Isopod: A Webbed Spin-off | $19.99 | 511 88% | 15k | $306k (exactly $306,447) | Sbug Games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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