Do I ship it?

Games › Destruction › Destruction + Female Protagonist

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Female-Led Destruction game?

Destruction + Female Protagonist

Of 21 developers who shipped a Female-Led Destruction 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.. 28 more are announced, ×2.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $2.7k, ×4.3 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $510k, ×821 the market median. Revenue is down 95% on the market; 28 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 4.3 times the market baseline, revenue down 95% on the market, 28 announced, ×2.5 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Destruction + Female Protagonist
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 21
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $13k → $43k → $12k → $1.2k → $43k (still earning) → $179 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Destruction + Female Protagonist: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 21
Bottom 30% $179 (exactly $179)
Median $2.7k (exactly $2,695)
Top 25% $43k (exactly $42,579)
Top 5% $516k (exactly $515,816)
Developers, 2 yr 21
Released games 50
Announced 28
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $8.99

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 95% on the market, supply 10% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 20%, excluded from money figures.

See every window in the explorer →

Plate 2 · systems and tooling

Can AI deliver it?

AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.

Destruction
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Female Protagonist
effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
Systems
Destruction; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Hack and Slash, Action Roguelike
Price point
$8.99 typical · top 25% priced $18.99 or above
Art
4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Anime, Gore, Top-Down
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $18.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.

The top 10 games average 87% positive over 2,998 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $180, median $2.7k, 1 in 4 over $42k, 1 in 20 over $510k.

3 in 10 developers made under $180. 8 in 10 of the 12 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 28 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.5 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Destruction with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Space SimFair14 devs · median $3.7k · 22 announced
  2. + ModernFair26 devs · median $1.6k · 28 announced
  3. + God GameFair19 devs · median $899 · 20 announced
  4. + Hidden ObjectFair9 devs · median $719 · 14 announced
  5. + Hack and SlashPoor odds19 devs · median $43k · 57 announced
  6. + HistoricalPoor odds15 devs · median $26k · 22 announced
  7. + CapitalismPoor odds17 devs · median $15k · 46 announced
  8. + Online Co-OpPoor odds37 devs · median $13k · 102 announced
  9. + Co-opPoor odds50 devs · median $11k · 113 announced
  10. + Automobile SimPoor odds22 devs · median $9.0k · 44 announced
  11. + ManagementPoor odds36 devs · median $6.1k · 129 announced
  12. + AutomationPoor odds22 devs · median $6.0k · 46 announced

All 139 pairs on the Destruction page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Battlefield™ V 2020 · $355M Severed Steel 2021 · $6.7M Saints Row®: The Third™ Remastered 2021 · $3.6M ICBM: Escalation 2024 · $1.1M Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae 2014 · $823k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Battlefield™ V older $49.99 236,709 70% 7.1M $355M (exactly $354,992,487) DICE
Severed Steel older $24.99 8,880 95% 266k $6.7M (exactly $6,657,336) Greylock Studio
Saints Row®: The Third™ Remastered older $29.99 3,968 73% 119k $3.6M (exactly $3,570,010) Deep Silver Volition, Sperasoft
ICBM: Escalation $29.99 1,248 86% 37k $1.1M (exactly $1,122,826) SoftWarWare
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae older $9.99 2,747 81% 82k $823k (exactly $823,276) Zenith Blue
Star Fire: Eternal Cycle $16.99 1,012 91% 30k $516k (exactly $515,816) Ethereal Fish Studio
Copy Kitty older $14.99 345 97% 10k $155k (exactly $155,146) Nuclear Strawberry
Decimate Drive older $7.99 321 91% 9.6k $77k (exactly $76,944) Some Random Designing
PROJEKT GODHAND $15.80 158 96% 4.7k $75k (exactly $74,892) Anarch Entertainment
MYRIAD DEATH $8.99 274 85% 8.2k $74k (exactly $73,898) IGNITION M, Clover Lab.,inc.
Sera's Adventure -Cave of Destruction- $18.99 76 53% 2.3k $43k (exactly $43,297) 渡里laboratory
Project Absentia $19.99 71 95% 2.1k $43k (exactly $42,579) Waffle Iron Studios
Castle of Vania $10.99 35 48% 1.1k $12k (exactly $11,540) Succubus Factory
Big Mutha Truckers $8.99 39 92% 1.2k $11k (exactly $10,518) Eutechnyx
Reyher Austerich's Garden worlds Adventure $4.99 60 90% 1.8k $9.0k (exactly $8,982) MegaDragonGirls Project
LURRUNA - The Island of Towering Automatons $9.99 25 100% 750 $7.5k (exactly $7,492) PD_CGT

Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.