Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + JRPG
Should I ship a Character Customization JRPG?
Character Customization + JRPG
Of 110 developers who shipped a Character Customization JRPG 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.. 144 more are announced, ×2.7 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $14k, ×23 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $2.4k; 1 in 20 cleared $11M, ×18740 the market median. Revenue is down 25% on the market; 144 games are announced against 53 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $2.4k (exactly $2,399) |
|---|---|
| Median | $14k (exactly $14,386) |
| Top 25% | $158k (exactly $158,187) |
| Top 5% | $12M (exactly $11,768,818) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 110 |
| Released games | 390 |
| Announced | 144 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $14.99 |
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 25% on the market, supply 10% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 12%, 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
- JRPG
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, JRPG; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry RPG, Action, Party-Based RPG
- Price point
- $14.99 typical · top 25% priced $59.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Anime, Story Rich, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $59.99 or above; the middle game at $14.99.
The top 10 games average 91% positive over 262,136 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $2.4k. 6 in 10 of the 65 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 144 games are announced against 53 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Monster Hunter: World | older | $29.99 | 317,068 89% | 9.5M | $285M (exactly $285,266,080) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | $49.99 | 181,667 95% | 5.5M | $272M (exactly $272,446,000) | Sandfall Interactive | |
| | MONSTER HUNTER RISE | older | $39.99 | 79,847 84% | 2.4M | $96M (exactly $95,792,446) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| | CODE VEIN | older | $59.99 | 46,315 83% | 1.4M | $83M (exactly $83,353,106) | Bandai Namco Studios |
| | South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ | older | $29.99 | 60,770 97% | 1.8M | $55M (exactly $54,674,769) | Obsidian Entertainment |
| | Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition | older | $49.99 | 33,892 87% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $50,827,832) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
| | FINAL FANTASY XIV Online | older | $19.99 | 78,661 86% | 2.4M | $47M (exactly $47,173,002) | Square Enix |
| | Temtem | older | $44.99 | 31,263 82% | 938k | $42M (exactly $42,195,671) | Crema |
| | Tales of ARISE | older | $49.99 | 27,643 86% | 829k | $41M (exactly $41,456,207) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. |
| | Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen | older | $29.99 | 37,437 88% | 1.1M | $34M (exactly $33,682,069) | Capcom |
| | Digimon Story Time Stranger | $69.99 | 15,845 89% | 475k | $33M (exactly $33,269,746) | Media.Vision Inc. | |
| | Nioh 3 | $69.99 | 11,777 78% | 353k | $25M (exactly $24,728,167) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. | |
| | INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road | $69.99 | 11,180 88% | 335k | $23M (exactly $23,474,646) | LEVEL5 Inc. | |
| | FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time | $59.99 | 11,771 91% | 353k | $21M (exactly $21,184,269) | LEVEL5 Inc. | |
| | Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii | $59.99 | 6,584 88% | 198k | $12M (exactly $11,849,225) | RGG Studio | |
| | Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection | $69.99 | 5,605 77% | 168k | $12M (exactly $11,768,818) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. | |
| | CODE VEIN II | $69.99 | 5,193 66% | 156k | $11M (exactly $10,903,742) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. | |
| | Echoes of Aincrad | $69.99 | 4,108 47% | 123k | $8.6M (exactly $8,625,568) | Game Studio Inc. | |
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.