Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Visual Novel
Should I ship a Character Customization Visual Novel?
Character Customization + Visual Novel
Of 113 developers who shipped a Character Customization Visual Novel 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.. 191 more are announced, ×3.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $5.1k, ×8.1 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $1.2k; 1 in 20 cleared $540k, ×869 the market median. Revenue is up 45% on the market; 191 games are announced against 55 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $1.2k (exactly $1,199) |
|---|---|
| Median | $5.1k (exactly $5,095) |
| Top 25% | $43k (exactly $42,861) |
| Top 5% | $545k (exactly $545,486) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 113 |
| Released games | 375 |
| Announced | 191 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $10.00 |
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 45% on the market, supply 10% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 17%, 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
- Visual Novel
- effort 2 / 10 · high · script, choices and static art
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, Visual Novel; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Dating Sim, RPG, Simulation
- Price point
- $10.00 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 6 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, Anime, 2D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $10.00.
The top 10 games average 88% positive over 26,519 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $1.2k. 8 in 10 of the 79 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 191 games are announced against 55 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Disco Elysium - The Final Cut | older | $39.99 | 118,124 92% | 3.5M | $142M (exactly $141,713,363) | ZA/UM |
| | コイカツ! / Koikatsu Party | older | $59.99 | 5,298 91% | 159k | $9.5M (exactly $9,534,811) | ILLUSION |
| | Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet | older | $19.99 | 15,461 79% | 464k | $9.3M (exactly $9,271,962) | Dimps Corporation |
| | Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization Deluxe Edition | older | $39.99 | 5,731 78% | 172k | $6.9M (exactly $6,875,481) | AQURIA |
| | Esoteric Ebb | $24.99 | 8,719 95% | 262k | $6.5M (exactly $6,536,634) | Christoffer Bodegård | |
| | Fate/EXTELLA LINK | older | $49.99 | 4,209 92% | 126k | $6.3M (exactly $6,312,237) | Marvelous Inc. |
| | Soul Hackers 2 | older | $59.99 | 2,300 65% | 69k | $4.1M (exactly $4,139,310) | ATLUS |
| | SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris | older | $19.99 | 5,017 61% | 151k | $3.0M (exactly $3,008,695) | AQURIA Co., Ltd. |
| | School Days | $14.99 | 6,023 77% | 181k | $2.7M (exactly $2,708,543) | 白雨工作室 | |
| | HoneySelect2Libido DX | older | $69.99 | 1,283 82% | 38k | $2.7M (exactly $2,693,915) | ILLUSION |
| | FEMBOY FUTA HOUSE | $14.99 | 4,131 89% | 124k | $1.9M (exactly $1,857,711) | IT'S A TRAP | |
| | Quickie: A Love Hotel Story | $19.99 | 2,081 95% | 62k | $1.2M (exactly $1,247,976) | Oppai Games | |
| | Sensei! I Like You So Much! | $16.99 | 1,304 86% | 39k | $665k (exactly $664,649) | LaoO Studio (Shanghai Ou Ou Xi Network… (LaoO Studio (Shanghai Ou Ou Xi Network Technology Co. LTD)) | |
| | JASON, Coming of Age | $14.99 | 1,213 83% | 36k | $545k (exactly $545,486) | Coeur de cochon | |
| | Rebirth Pub | $17.99 | 700 92% | 21k | $378k (exactly $377,790) | Seikou Soft. | |
| | My Sexy Neighbor 🔞 | $9.99 | 1,197 70% | 36k | $359k (exactly $358,741) | Pocket Rocket Studio 🚀 | |
| | Money for Girls: Amortized | $15.00 | 795 98% | 24k | $358k (exactly $357,750) | Porpentine | |
| | Fallen / Brand New World | $29.99 | 356 94% | 11k | $320k (exactly $320,293) | Parthia Studio LLC |
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.