Games › Dating Sim › Dating Sim + Time Travel
Should I ship a Time-Travel Dating Sim?
Dating Sim + Time Travel
Only 18 developers shipped a Time-Travel Dating Sim 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, STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 16 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $6.1k, ×13 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $2.6k; 1 in 20 cleared $1.0M, ×2251 the market median. Revenue is down 85% on the market; 16 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $2.5k (exactly $2,518) |
|---|---|
| Median | $6.1k (exactly $6,105) |
| Top 25% | $55k (exactly $55,145) |
| Top 5% | $1.1M (exactly $1,069,022) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 18 |
| Released games | 42 |
| Announced | 16 |
| Effort | 4 / 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 85% on the market, supply as many developers as the period before.
Free games: 12%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Dating Sim
- effort 2 / 10 · high · effort 2 sits in the high band
- Time Travel
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Dating Sim; 8 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Choices Matter, Visual Novel, Adventure
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $59.99 or above
- Art
- all of the top 25% ship with Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $59.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 83% positive over 2,266 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $2.6k. 6 in 10 of the 9 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 16 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Dating Sim with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + WarStrong odds
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Souls-likeStrong odds
- + AliensStrong odds
- + PlatformerStrong odds
- + HistoricalFair
- + FPSFair
- + Post-apocalypticFair
- + Quick-Time EventsFair
- + Immersive SimFair
- + Action-AdventureFair
- + TacticalFair
Comparable games
STEINS;GATE 2016 · $23M 
Raging Loop 2017 · $9.5M 
ISLAND 2018 · $1.8M 
STEINS;GATE: My Darling's Embrace 2019 · $1.6M 
STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT 2026 · $1.1M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | STEINS;GATE | older | $29.99 | 25,289 97% | 759k | $23M (exactly $22,752,513) | MAGES. Inc. |
| | Raging Loop | older | $29.99 | 10,568 95% | 317k | $9.5M (exactly $9,508,030) | KEMCO |
| | ISLAND | older | $39.99 | 1,541 94% | 46k | $1.8M (exactly $1,848,738) | Frontwing |
| | STEINS;GATE: My Darling's Embrace | older | $29.99 | 1,802 95% | 54k | $1.6M (exactly $1,621,259) | MAGES. Inc. |
| | STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT | $59.99 | 594 88% | 18k | $1.1M (exactly $1,069,022) | MAGES. Inc. | |
 | Sexbot | $14.99 | 723 86% | 22k | $325k (exactly $325,133) | Llamamann Games | |
 | Kraken Academy!! | older | $9.99 | 737 91% | 22k | $221k (exactly $220,879) | Happy Broccoli Games |
 | Shanghai Summer | older | $12.99 | 393 89% | 12k | $153k (exactly $153,152) | FUTU Studio |
 | ChronoClock | older | $29.99 | 151 91% | 4.5k | $136k (exactly $135,855) | Purple Software |
 | Mech Academy | $9.99 | 214 91% | 6.4k | $64k (exactly $64,136) | Space Samurai Studio | |
 | Time Space Rebuild | $4.99 | 377 76% | 11k | $56k (exactly $56,437) | INNOVATION DREAM | |
 | Train and Tame | $9.99 | 184 65% | 5.5k | $55k (exactly $55,145) | Tames Games | |
 | Love starts again | $15.99 | 63 71% | 1.9k | $30k (exactly $30,221) | WWWave Corporation | |
 | Novel Forger: Suicide Mr. Fury | $7.99 | 34 100% | 1.0k | $8.2k (exactly $8,150) | KK Narratif | |
 | My Future Wife (InsanErotica) | · EA | $19.99 | 11 63% | 330 | $6.6k (exactly $6,597) | InsanErotica |
 | 钟塔 | $3.99 | 51 88% | 1.5k | $6.1k (exactly $6,105) | 可味玩KawayiPlay | |
 | EMIT:Embrace Beyond Time | $8.99 | 15 93% | 450 | $4.0k (exactly $4,046) | LuLuLuna Studio |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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