Games › Survival › Survival + Choose Your Own Adventure
Should I ship a Choose Your Own Adventure Survival game?
Survival + Choose Your Own Adventure
Of 113 developers who shipped a Choose Your Own Adventure Survival 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.. 233 more are announced, ×3.3 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.3k, ×2.0 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $300; 1 in 20 cleared $110k, ×188 the market median. Revenue is flat on the market; 233 games are announced against 70 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $299 (exactly $299) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.3k (exactly $1,256) |
| Top 25% | $5.1k (exactly $5,147) |
| Top 5% | $118k (exactly $118,141) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 113 |
| Released games | 413 |
| Announced | 233 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $6.99 |
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 flat on the market, supply 60% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 9%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Survival
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Choose Your Own Adventure
- effort 2 / 10 · high · branching text with light state
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Survival, Choose Your Own Adventure; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Simulation, Choices Matter
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Atmospheric, 3D, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 72% positive over 8,531 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $300. 9 in 10 of the 56 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 233 games are announced against 70 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.3 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Survival with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Social DeductionFair
- + Word GameFair
- + CatsFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + IdlerFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + DogsFair
- + Martial ArtsLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
Comparable games
DayZ 2018 · $582M 
The Walking Dead 2012 · $24M 
FTL: Faster Than Light 2012 · $19M 
The Walking Dead: Season Two 2013 · $12M 
The Walking Dead: The Final Season 2018 · $10M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | DayZ | older | $49.99 | 387,850 78% | 12M | $582M (exactly $581,658,645) | Bohemia Interactive |
| | The Walking Dead | older | $14.99 | 53,650 97% | 1.6M | $24M (exactly $24,126,405) | Telltale Games |
| | FTL: Faster Than Light | older | $9.99 | 62,763 94% | 1.9M | $19M (exactly $18,810,071) | Subset Games |
| | The Walking Dead: Season Two | older | $14.99 | 26,848 96% | 805k | $12M (exactly $12,073,546) | Telltale Games |
| | The Walking Dead: The Final Season | older | $19.99 | 17,447 94% | 523k | $10M (exactly $10,462,966) | Telltale Games |
 | The Walking Dead: A New Frontier | older | $14.99 | 15,482 83% | 464k | $7.0M (exactly $6,962,255) | Telltale Games |
 | 60 Seconds! Reatomized | older | $9.99 | 18,362 94% | 551k | $5.5M (exactly $5,503,091) | Robot Gentleman |
 | Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown | $34.99 | 4,162 79% | 125k | $4.4M (exactly $4,368,851) | Gamexcite | |
 | 60 Seconds! | older | $8.99 | 10,491 84% | 315k | $2.8M (exactly $2,829,423) | Robot Gentleman |
 | The Walking Dead: Michonne - A Telltale Miniseries | older | $14.99 | 6,047 80% | 181k | $2.7M (exactly $2,719,336) | Telltale Games |
 | Directive 8020 | $49.99 | 1,337 63% | 40k | $2.0M (exactly $2,005,099) | Supermassive Games | |
 | Tides of Tomorrow 🌊 | $29.99 | 521 86% | 16k | $469k (exactly $468,744) | Digixart | |
 | Caravanners | · EA | $17.99 | 712 35% | 21k | $384k (exactly $384,266) | Akif Akdemir |
 | Ways of Alchemy | $17.99 | 674 74% | 20k | $364k (exactly $363,758) | RocketBrush Games | |
 | City 20 | · EA | $19.99 | 197 72% | 5.9k | $118k (exactly $118,141) | Untold Games |
 | Dead in Antares | $19.99 | 189 77% | 5.7k | $113k (exactly $113,343) | Ishtar Games | |
 | Lustful Dead 🔞 | $9.99 | 267 49% | 8.0k | $80k (exactly $80,020) | BanzaiProject | |
 | Choice of Life: Wild Islands | $6.99 | 342 92% | 10k | $72k (exactly $71,717) | Blazing Planet Studio | |
 | PuPu's Adventure Park | $14.99 | 130 64% | 3.9k | $58k (exactly $58,461) | 西梅树工作室 |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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