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Should I ship a Character Customization Puzzle game?
Character Customization + Puzzle
Of 212 developers who shipped a Character Customization Puzzle 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.. 304 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 $960, ×1.5 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $290k, ×474 the market median. Revenue is down 35% on the market; 304 games are announced against 113 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $179 (exactly $179) |
|---|---|
| Median | $959 (exactly $959) |
| Top 25% | $9.4k (exactly $9,444) |
| Top 5% | $297k (exactly $297,451) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 212 |
| Released games | 566 |
| Announced | 304 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $5.99 |
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 35% on the market, supply 15% 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
- Puzzle
- effort 2 / 10 · high · discrete rules, levels are data
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, Puzzle; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Exploration, Action
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Cute, 3D, Colorful
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 93% positive over 17,170 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 8 in 10 of the 112 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 304 games are announced against 113 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Hogwarts Legacy | older | $59.99 | 274,801 89% | 8.2M | $495M (exactly $494,559,360) | Avalanche Software |
| | The Escapists 2 | older | $19.99 | 26,452 90% | 794k | $16M (exactly $15,863,264) | Team17, Mouldy Toof Studios |
| | LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame | older | $19.99 | 12,850 89% | 386k | $7.7M (exactly $7,706,145) | Traveller's Tales |
| | Immortals Fenyx Rising | older | $39.99 | 4,522 73% | 136k | $5.4M (exactly $5,425,043) | Ubisoft |
| | LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 2 | older | $19.99 | 7,452 86% | 224k | $4.5M (exactly $4,468,964) | TT Games, Feral Interactive (Mac) |
| | Labyrinthine | older | $9.99 | 13,779 84% | 413k | $4.1M (exactly $4,129,566) | Valko Game Studios |
| | Biped | older | $14.99 | 9,025 85% | 271k | $4.1M (exactly $4,058,542) | NEXT Studios |
| | West of Loathing | older | $10.99 | 9,716 97% | 291k | $3.2M (exactly $3,203,365) | Asymmetric |
| | Death and Taxes | older | $12.99 | 7,855 86% | 236k | $3.1M (exactly $3,061,094) | Placeholder Gameworks |
| | Escape Simulator 2 | $19.99 | 4,292 92% | 129k | $2.6M (exactly $2,573,912) | Pine Studio | |
| | Once Upon A KATAMARI | $39.99 | 1,355 90% | 41k | $1.6M (exactly $1,625,594) | RENGAME | |
| | Yooka-Replaylee | $29.99 | 1,045 92% | 31k | $940k (exactly $940,186) | Playtonic Games | |
| | Squeakross: Home Squeak Home | $14.99 | 2,045 98% | 61k | $920k (exactly $919,636) | Alblune | |
| | Turbo Dismount® 2 | $19.99 | 753 95% | 23k | $452k (exactly $451,574) | Secret Exit Ltd. | |
| | Find Matt's Cats | $19.99 | 719 98% | 22k | $431k (exactly $431,184) | Matt Roszak | |
| | That's not my Neighbor | $2.99 | 4,498 88% | 135k | $403k (exactly $403,471) | Nachosama Games | |
| | A Webbing Journey | · EA | $9.99 | 1,263 98% | 38k | $379k (exactly $378,521) | Fire Totem Games |
| | Schrodinger's Cat Burglar | $19.99 | 613 97% | 18k | $368k (exactly $367,616) | Abandoned Sheep | |
| | NAIAD | $19.99 | 587 95% | 18k | $352k (exactly $352,024) | HiWarp |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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