Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Life Sim
Should I ship a Character Customization Life Sim?
Character Customization + Life Sim
Of 250 developers who shipped a Character Customization Life Sim 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.. 558 more are announced, ×3.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $11k, ×18 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $840; 1 in 20 cleared $1.8M, ×2937 the market median. Revenue is down 60% on the market; 558 games are announced against 147 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $838 (exactly $838) |
|---|---|
| Median | $11k (exactly $11,389) |
| Top 25% | $101k (exactly $101,182) |
| Top 5% | $1.8M (exactly $1,844,385) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 250 |
| Released games | 586 |
| Announced | 558 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $9.99 |
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 60% on the market, supply 40% more 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
- Life Sim
- 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, Life Sim; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Simulation, Immersive Sim, Sandbox
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Relaxing, Cute, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 82% positive over 99,239 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $840. 5 in 10 of the 124 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 558 games are announced against 147 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.8 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
Crusader Kings III 2020 · $142M 
inZOI 2025 · EA · $36M 
My Time at Sandrock 2023 · $29M 
Disney Dreamlight Valley 2023 · $26M 
Paralives 2026 · EA · $24M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Crusader Kings III | older | $49.99 | 94,615 90% | 2.8M | $142M (exactly $141,894,116) | Paradox Development Studio |
| | inZOI | · EA | $39.99 | 30,020 77% | 901k | $36M (exactly $36,014,994) | inZOI Studio |
| | My Time at Sandrock | older | $39.99 | 24,110 88% | 723k | $29M (exactly $28,924,767) | Pathea Games |
| | Disney Dreamlight Valley | older | $39.99 | 22,027 92% | 661k | $26M (exactly $26,425,792) | Gameloft |
| | Paralives | · EA | $39.99 | 20,123 89% | 604k | $24M (exactly $24,141,563) | Alex Massé and team |
 | Coral Island | older | $29.99 | 21,828 89% | 655k | $20M (exactly $19,638,652) | Stairway Games |
 | The Sims™ 3 | older | $19.99 | 31,071 85% | 932k | $19M (exactly $18,633,279) | The Sims Studio, Maxis |
 | Sun Haven | older | $24.99 | 22,069 79% | 662k | $17M (exactly $16,545,129) | Pixel Sprout Studios |
 | Youtubers Life | older | $19.99 | 13,748 77% | 412k | $8.2M (exactly $8,244,676) | UPLAY Online |
 | Luma Island | $19.99 | 11,204 84% | 336k | $6.7M (exactly $6,719,039) | Feel Free Games | |
 | The Sims™ 2 Legacy Collection | $29.99 | 4,759 72% | 143k | $4.3M (exactly $4,281,672) | MAXIS | |
 | Streamer Life Simulator 2 | $19.99 | 6,751 81% | 203k | $4.0M (exactly $4,048,575) | Cheesecake Dev | |
 | Kebab Chefs! - Restaurant Simulator | $17.99 | 7,019 83% | 211k | $3.8M (exactly $3,788,154) | Biotech Gameworks | |
 | Farm Together 2 | $25.99 | 4,456 93% | 134k | $3.5M (exactly $3,474,343) | Milkstone Studios | |
 | Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings™ Game | $34.99 | 3,237 81% | 97k | $3.4M (exactly $3,397,879) | Wētā Workshop | |
 | The Coin Game | $19.99 | 5,647 92% | 169k | $3.4M (exactly $3,386,506) | devotid | |
 | School Days | $14.99 | 6,023 77% | 181k | $2.7M (exactly $2,708,543) | 白雨工作室 |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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