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Should I ship a Crafting Trading Card Game?
Trading Card Game + Crafting
Only 10 developers shipped a Crafting Trading Card Game in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, KOTAMON: My Sis Found A Super-Rare Card In Her Cereal Box, So I Became A Garbage Man To Find The Entire Collection And Earn $1,000,000, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 24 more are announced, ×3.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.4k, ×3.8 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $600; 1 in 20 cleared $520k, ×831 the market median. Momentum is unreadable here, too few recent games; 24 games are announced against 8 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $599 (exactly $599) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.4k (exactly $2,397) |
| Top 25% | $16k (exactly $16,147) |
| Top 5% | $522k (exactly $521,943) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 10 |
| Released games | 37 |
| Announced | 24 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $7.99 |
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 too few recent games to read momentum, supply 300% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 38%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Trading Card Game
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Crafting
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Trading Card Game, Crafting
- Price point
- $7.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 9 games average 74% positive over 4,226 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $600. 6 in 10 of the 7 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 24 games are announced against 8 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.0 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Trading Card Game with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Immersive SimStrong odds
- + SandboxFair
- + Inventory ManagementFair
- + Procedural GenerationPoor odds
- + TradingPoor odds
- + Life SimPoor odds
- + CollectathonPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + Auto BattlerPoor odds
- + Roguelike DeckbuilderPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Aces & Adventures | older | $19.99 | 2,220 89% | 67k | $1.3M (exactly $1,331,334) | Triple.B.Titles |
| | KOTAMON: My Sis Found A Super-Rare Card In Her Cereal Box, So I Became A Garbage Man To Find The Entire Collection And Earn $1,000,000 | $6.99 | 2,489 81% | 75k | $522k (exactly $521,943) | KotaMota Games | |
| | Doodle God | older | $14.99 | 1,030 77% | 31k | $463k (exactly $463,191) | JoyBits Ltd. |
| | My Wife Threw Out My Card Collection (So I Bought a Dump to Find Them All) ⭐ | $7.95 | 1,601 65% | 48k | $382k (exactly $381,838) | Polnoch | |
| | Doodle Kingdom | older | $8.99 | 129 45% | 3.9k | $35k (exactly $34,791) | JoyBits Ltd. |
| | Dig for TCG Cards With Your Friends | $6.99 | 77 44% | 2.3k | $16k (exactly $16,147) | 3 Rare Devs | |
| | Card Artisan | $12.99 | 36 91% | 1.1k | $14k (exactly $14,029) | Fullen Games | |
| | Royal Merchant | older | $4.99 | 75 62% | 2.3k | $11k (exactly $11,228) | Badim |
| | The Idle | older | $6.99 | 13 30% | 390 | $2.7k (exactly $2,726) | iclick games |
| | Idle Colors | $7.99 | 10 30% | 300 | $2.4k (exactly $2,397) | Like Idle Games | |
| | Idle Income | $5.99 | 8 37% | 240 | $1.4k (exactly $1,438) | Trinket Games | |
| | Rise of the Settlement | · EA | $9.99 | 2 100% | 60 | $599 (exactly $599) | Luki |
| | Block Sprawl | $14.99 | 1 100% | 30 | $450 (exactly $450) | Koding Nights | |
| | Apocalypse: The Hunger | $1.99 | 2 0% | 60 | $119 (exactly $119) | Bit Boy Games | |
| | Boss Key | · EA | $9.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Institute of Card Game Studies |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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