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Should I ship a Martial-Arts Character Customization game?
Character Customization + Martial Arts
Of 42 developers who shipped a Martial-Arts Character Customization 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.. 87 more are announced, ×3.6 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.7k, ×4.3 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $630; 1 in 20 cleared $2.2M, ×3615 the market median. Revenue is up 180% on the market; 87 games are announced against 24 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $624 (exactly $624) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.7k (exactly $2,696) |
| Top 25% | $63k (exactly $63,281) |
| Top 5% | $2.3M (exactly $2,270,092) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 42 |
| Released games | 127 |
| Announced | 87 |
| 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 up 180% on the market, supply 25% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 11%, 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
- Martial Arts
- 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; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry RPG, Strategy, Open World
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 84% positive over 26,916 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $630. 7 in 10 of the 22 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 87 games are announced against 24 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.6 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Character Customization with a different setting or mood, 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
Street Fighter™ 6 2023 · $60M 
TEKKEN 8 2024 · $55M 
Mortal Kombat 1 2023 · $51M 
Path Of Wuxia 2022 · $30M 
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty 2023 · $25M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Street Fighter™ 6 | older | $39.99 | 49,952 81% | 1.5M | $60M (exactly $59,927,414) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| | TEKKEN 8 | older | $39.99 | 46,009 56% | 1.4M | $55M (exactly $55,196,997) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. |
| | Mortal Kombat 1 | older | $49.99 | 34,197 74% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $51,285,241) | NetherRealm Studios, QLOC |
| | Path Of Wuxia | older | $34.99 | 28,286 78% | 849k | $30M (exactly $29,691,814) | 香港商河洛互動娛樂股份有限公司 |
| | Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty | older | $39.99 | 20,873 49% | 626k | $25M (exactly $25,041,338) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
 | 暖雪 Warm Snow | older | $17.99 | 35,270 92% | 1.1M | $19M (exactly $19,035,219) | BadMudStudio |
 | BIOMUTANT | older | $39.99 | 13,169 67% | 395k | $16M (exactly $15,798,849) | Experiment 101 |
 | 觅长生 | older | $14.99 | 27,072 93% | 812k | $12M (exactly $12,174,278) | Chalcedony Network |
 | Hero's Adventure: Road to Passion | older | $17.99 | 22,287 84% | 669k | $12M (exactly $12,028,294) | 半瓶醋工作室（Half Amateur Studio） |
 | Absolver | older | $29.99 | 11,464 74% | 344k | $10M (exactly $10,314,161) | Sloclap |
 | Dead as Disco | · EA | $24.99 | 12,354 96% | 371k | $9.3M (exactly $9,261,794) | Brain Jar Games, Inc. |
 | The Matchless Kungfu | $19.99 | 6,755 79% | 203k | $4.1M (exactly $4,050,973) | HuanMos Game | |
 | Eastern Era | $24.99 | 3,028 65% | 91k | $2.3M (exactly $2,270,092) | FunYoo Games | |
 | Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage | $19.99 | 1,897 71% | 57k | $1.1M (exactly $1,137,631) | RGG Studio | |
 | WindStop Strategy | $9.99 | 1,494 78% | 45k | $448k (exactly $447,752) | Xia Start | |
 | 侠落：百花杀尽 | $12.99 | 493 70% | 15k | $192k (exactly $192,122) | 上海江湖逸客信息技术有限公司 | |
 | Red Masked Ronin: Desires and Shadows | · EA | $12.99 | 205 64% | 6.2k | $80k (exactly $79,888) | Light Hunt Games |
 | Swords and Sandals 3 Redux | $9.99 | 233 87% | 7.0k | $70k (exactly $69,830) | Whiskeybarrel Studios | |
 | Elder Ring | · EA | $9.99 | 230 40% | 6.9k | $69k (exactly $68,931) | Funny as Hell |
 | Fight School Simulator | $9.99 | 227 88% | 6.8k | $68k (exactly $68,032) | Queen |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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