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Should I ship a Character Customization Mining game?
Character Customization + Mining
Of 38 developers who shipped a Character Customization Mining 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.. 65 more are announced, ×2.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $6.7k, ×11 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $480; 1 in 20 cleared $3.6M, ×5762 the market median. Revenue is down 85% on the market; 65 games are announced against 32 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $479 (exactly $479) |
|---|---|
| Median | $6.7k (exactly $6,747) |
| Top 25% | $76k (exactly $76,464) |
| Top 5% | $3.6M (exactly $3,618,278) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 38 |
| Released games | 74 |
| Announced | 65 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $7.99 |
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 85% on the market, supply 355% 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
- Mining
- 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, Mining; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Crafting, Adventure, Building
- Price point
- $7.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Relaxing, 2D, Colorful
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $7.99.
The top 10 games average 69% positive over 26,534 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $480. 5 in 10 of the 11 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 65 games are announced against 32 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.0 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
My Time at Sandrock 2023 · $29M 
Coral Island 2023 · $20M 
Sun Haven 2023 · $17M 
Luma Island 2024 · $6.7M 
The Quinfall 2026 · $3.6M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | My Time at Sandrock | older | $39.99 | 24,110 88% | 723k | $29M (exactly $28,924,767) | Pathea Games |
| | Coral Island | older | $29.99 | 21,828 89% | 655k | $20M (exactly $19,638,652) | Stairway Games |
| | Sun Haven | older | $24.99 | 22,069 79% | 662k | $17M (exactly $16,545,129) | Pixel Sprout Studios |
| | Luma Island | $19.99 | 11,204 84% | 336k | $6.7M (exactly $6,719,039) | Feel Free Games | |
| | The Quinfall | $9.99 | 12,073 50% | 362k | $3.6M (exactly $3,618,278) | Vawraek Technology Inc. | |
 | CryoFall | older | $19.99 | 4,905 78% | 147k | $2.9M (exactly $2,941,528) | AtomicTorch Studio |
 | Cattails | Become a Cat! | older | $14.99 | 2,315 95% | 69k | $1.0M (exactly $1,041,056) | Falcon Development |
 | Cattails: Wildwood Story | older | $19.99 | 1,479 97% | 44k | $887k (exactly $886,956) | Falcon Development |
 | My Little Universe | older | $14.99 | 1,500 89% | 45k | $675k (exactly $674,550) | Estoty |
 | Everafter Falls | older | $19.99 | 437 86% | 13k | $262k (exactly $262,069) | SquareHusky |
 | Hole Is Mine | $7.99 | 741 90% | 22k | $178k (exactly $177,618) | Incrementalist | |
 | Rise of Industry 2 | $34.99 | 154 55% | 4.6k | $162k (exactly $161,654) | SomaSim | |
 | Dig Island | · EA | $14.99 | 282 86% | 8.5k | $127k (exactly $126,815) | FiftyEight Studios |
 | Super Mining Mechs | $4.99 | 841 86% | 25k | $126k (exactly $125,898) | Delayed Victory | |
 | Seeds of Calamity | $14.99 | 271 78% | 8.1k | $122k (exactly $121,869) | Laborious Lark Studios | |
 | Wonderia | · EA | $13.99 | 276 80% | 8.3k | $116k (exactly $115,837) | Rock&Dash |
 | Mining Merchant | $6.99 | 410 88% | 12k | $86k (exactly $85,977) | Delayed Victory | |
 | Goblin Company | $9.99 | 282 81% | 8.5k | $85k (exactly $84,515) | BitBorne Studio |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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