Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Romance
Should I ship a Romance Character Customization game?
Character Customization + Romance
Of 144 developers who shipped a Romance 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.. 256 more are announced, ×3.7 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $8.1k, ×13 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $1.8k; 1 in 20 cleared $990k, ×1583 the market median. Revenue is down 25% on the market; 256 games are announced against 69 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $1.8k (exactly $1,796) |
|---|---|
| Median | $8.1k (exactly $8,097) |
| Top 25% | $60k (exactly $59,710) |
| Top 5% | $994k (exactly $994,425) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 144 |
| Released games | 462 |
| Announced | 256 |
| 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 25% on the market, supply 15% fewer 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
- Romance
- effort 2 / 10 · high · effort 2 sits in the high 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 Dating Sim, Simulation, Immersive Sim
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Cute, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 74% positive over 86,803 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $1.8k. 7 in 10 of the 104 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 256 games are announced against 69 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.7 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
Baldur's Gate 3 2023 · $1.4B 
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition 2017 · $244M 
Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition 2021 · $112M 
Dragon Age™: The Veilguard 2024 · $74M 
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition 2021 · $51M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Baldur's Gate 3 | older | $59.99 | 755,010 96% | 23M | $1.4B (exactly $1,358,791,497) | Larian Studios |
| | Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition | older | $44.99 | 180,782 95% | 5.4M | $244M (exactly $244,001,465) | Larian Studios |
| | Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition | older | $59.99 | 62,205 91% | 1.9M | $112M (exactly $111,950,338) | BioWare |
| | Dragon Age™: The Veilguard | $59.99 | 41,393 67% | 1.2M | $74M (exactly $74,494,982) | BioWare | |
| | Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition | older | $49.99 | 34,157 83% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $51,225,253) | Owlcat Games |
 | Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader | older | $49.99 | 33,701 87% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $50,541,390) | Owlcat Games |
 | Tales of ARISE | older | $49.99 | 27,643 86% | 829k | $41M (exactly $41,456,207) | Bandai Namco Studios Inc. |
 | inZOI | · EA | $39.99 | 30,020 77% | 901k | $36M (exactly $36,014,994) | inZOI Studio |
 | Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition | older | $29.99 | 28,721 85% | 862k | $26M (exactly $25,840,284) | BioWare |
 | Mass Effect™: Andromeda Deluxe Edition | older | $39.99 | 16,741 73% | 502k | $20M (exactly $20,084,178) | BioWare |
 | Moonlight Peaks | $34.99 | 1,793 88% | 54k | $1.9M (exactly $1,882,112) | Little Chicken | |
 | FEMBOY FUTA HOUSE | $14.99 | 4,131 89% | 124k | $1.9M (exactly $1,857,711) | IT'S A TRAP | |
 | Tales of Seikyu | $24.99 | 2,179 83% | 65k | $1.6M (exactly $1,633,596) | ACE Entertainment | |
 | GreedFall: The Dying World | $49.99 | 1,027 61% | 31k | $1.5M (exactly $1,540,192) | Spiders | |
 | Quickie: A Love Hotel Story | $19.99 | 2,081 95% | 62k | $1.2M (exactly $1,247,976) | Oppai Games | |
 | The Wife Next Door | $16.99 | 1,951 89% | 59k | $994k (exactly $994,425) | 雪山雞白郎, SnowGBL | |
 | Football Life Simulator | · EA | $19.99 | 1,567 68% | 47k | $940k (exactly $939,730) | Ludu Arts |
 | AV Director Life! | $29.99 | 661 85% | 20k | $595k (exactly $594,702) | TeamKRAMA |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.