Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Music
Should I ship a Music Character Customization game?
Character Customization + Music
Of 29 developers who shipped a Music 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.. 46 more are announced, ×2.2 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.6k, ×2.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $300; 1 in 20 cleared $2.3M, ×3711 the market median. Revenue is down 100% on the market; 46 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $300 (exactly $300) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.6k (exactly $1,647) |
| Top 25% | $49k (exactly $49,188) |
| Top 5% | $2.3M (exactly $2,330,534) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 29 |
| Released games | 94 |
| Announced | 46 |
| 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 100% on the market, supply 165% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 15%, 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
- Music
- 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; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Desktop Companion, Idler, Life Sim
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $24.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Anime, Cozy
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $24.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 90% positive over 22,517 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $300. 6 in 10 of the 10 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 46 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.2 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
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Need for Speed™ Unbound | older | $69.99 | 49,862 61% | 1.5M | $105M (exactly $104,695,241) | Criterion Games |
| | Geometry Dash | older | $4.99 | 595,606 93% | 18M | $89M (exactly $89,162,218) | RobTop Games |
| | Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ | older | $39.39 | 19,507 94% | 585k | $23M (exactly $23,051,422) | SEGA |
| | Dead as Disco | · EA | $24.99 | 12,354 96% | 371k | $9.3M (exactly $9,261,794) | Brain Jar Games, Inc. |
| | Spirit City: Lofi Sessions | older | $11.99 | 15,211 97% | 456k | $5.5M (exactly $5,471,397) | Mooncube Games |
| | Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 1 + 2 | older | $39.99 | 4,497 90% | 135k | $5.4M (exactly $5,395,051) | Vicarious Visions, Iron Galaxy Studios |
| | Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 3 + 4 | $49.99 | 1,554 68% | 47k | $2.3M (exactly $2,330,534) | Iron Galaxy Studios | |
| | Ragnarock | older | $24.99 | 2,775 94% | 83k | $2.1M (exactly $2,080,417) | WanadevStudio |
| | Melody's Escape | older | $9.99 | 4,336 92% | 130k | $1.3M (exactly $1,299,499) | Icetesy |
| | PLATiNA :: LAB | $19.99 | 1,780 50% | 53k | $1.1M (exactly $1,067,466) | HIGH-END Games | |
| | Ithya: Magic Studies | $10.99 | 2,103 97% | 63k | $693k (exactly $693,359) | BlueTurtle | |
| | Mini Cozy Room: Lo-Fi | $4.99 | 3,443 96% | 103k | $515k (exactly $515,417) | Tesseract Studio, Nugem Studio | |
| | Rock Star Life Simulator | $12.49 | 498 85% | 15k | $187k (exactly $186,601) | HOGO Games | |
| | Virtual Cottage 2 | $7.99 | 645 97% | 19k | $155k (exactly $154,606) | DU&I | |
| | Barbie Project Friendship™ | $39.99 | 41 80% | 1.2k | $49k (exactly $49,188) | Xaloc Studios, Casual Brothers Ltd. | |
| | Dance Eden | $19.99 | 42 85% | 1.3k | $25k (exactly $25,187) | DigiEden | |
| | Hocus Focus | $10.99 | 57 91% | 1.7k | $19k (exactly $18,793) | Stuck In Attic |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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