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Should I ship a Choose Your Own Adventure Tactical game?
Tactical + Choose Your Own Adventure
Of 46 developers who shipped a Choose Your Own Adventure Tactical 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.. 69 more are announced, ×2.4 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $720, ×1.1 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $150; 1 in 20 cleared $620k, ×999 the market median. Revenue is flat on the market; 69 games are announced against 29 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $148 (exactly $148) |
|---|---|
| Median | $718 (exactly $718) |
| Top 25% | $8.6k (exactly $8,630) |
| Top 5% | $627k (exactly $627,443) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 46 |
| Released games | 94 |
| Announced | 69 |
| 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: 10%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Tactical
- 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
- Tactical, Choose Your Own Adventure; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Choices Matter, Simulation, Strategy
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $34.95 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $34.95 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 73% positive over 21,329 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $150. 9 in 10 of the 21 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 69 games are announced against 29 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.4 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Tactical with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Football (American)Strong odds
- + Mystery DungeonStrong odds
- + Dating SimFair
- + 6DOFFair
- + Word GameFair
- + TypingFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + Traditional RoguelikeFair
- + Dynamic NarrationFair
- + Farming SimFair
- + SolitaireFair
- + LGBTQ+Fair
Comparable games
FTL: Faster Than Light 2012 · $19M 
The Bazaar 2025 · $9.0M 
Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown 2026 · $4.4M 
The Oregon Trail 2022 · $1.1M 
Pathway 2019 · $915k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | FTL: Faster Than Light | older | $9.99 | 62,763 94% | 1.9M | $19M (exactly $18,810,071) | Subset Games |
| | The Bazaar | $19.99 | 14,931 70% | 448k | $9.0M (exactly $8,954,121) | Tempo | |
| | Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown | $34.99 | 4,162 79% | 125k | $4.4M (exactly $4,368,851) | Gamexcite | |
| | The Oregon Trail | older | $29.99 | 1,220 79% | 37k | $1.1M (exactly $1,097,634) | Gameloft |
| | Pathway | older | $15.99 | 1,908 76% | 57k | $915k (exactly $915,268) | Robotality |
 | Abandon Ship | older | $24.99 | 1,151 71% | 35k | $863k (exactly $862,905) | Fireblade Software |
 | Legends of Eisenwald | older | $19.99 | 1,394 76% | 42k | $836k (exactly $835,982) | Aterdux Entertainment |
 | Blades of Fire | $39.99 | 523 74% | 16k | $627k (exactly $627,443) | MercurySteam | |
 | Ludus Magnatus: Gladiator Manager Simulator | · EA | $24.99 | 612 81% | 18k | $459k (exactly $458,816) | Contec Games |
 | Ash of Gods: The Way | older | $24.99 | 416 80% | 12k | $312k (exactly $311,875) | AurumDust |
 | Mamon King | $12.99 | 603 90% | 18k | $235k (exactly $234,989) | LiTMUS Co., Ltd. | |
 | Dead in Antares | $19.99 | 189 77% | 5.7k | $113k (exactly $113,343) | Ishtar Games | |
 | Spear Song | · EA | $14.99 | 170 88% | 5.1k | $76k (exactly $76,449) | Divovision Games |
 | Draw Steel | · EA | $19.99 | 67 98% | 2.0k | $40k (exactly $40,180) | Verisim, MCDM |
 | Simp: Leveling Up on a Dating App | $9.99 | 38 65% | 1.1k | $11k (exactly $11,389) | MONSTIVE | |
 | Wasteland with Robots | $9.99 | 34 94% | 1.0k | $10k (exactly $10,190) | Gamesforgames |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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