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Should I ship a Level Editor Destruction game?
Destruction + Level Editor
Only 19 developers shipped a Level Editor Destruction 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, Turbo Dismount® 2, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 27 more are announced, ×2.1 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.3k, ×3.7 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $450; 1 in 20 cleared $450k, ×719 the market median. Revenue is down 90% on the market; 27 games are announced against 13 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $449 (exactly $449) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.3k (exactly $2,307) |
| Top 25% | $33k (exactly $32,934) |
| Top 5% | $452k (exactly $451,574) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 19 |
| Released games | 72 |
| Announced | 27 |
| Effort | 6 / 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 90% on the market, supply 115% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 11%, excluded from money figures.
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
- Level Editor
- 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
- Destruction, Level Editor; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Building, Sandbox, Action
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Colorful, First-Person
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 84% positive over 1,838 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $450. 7 in 10 of the 6 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 27 games are announced against 13 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.1 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Destruction with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Space SimFair
- + ModernFair
- + God GameFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Hack and SlashPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + CapitalismPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + Automobile SimPoor odds
- + ManagementPoor odds
- + AutomationPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Besiege | older | $14.99 | 48,045 95% | 1.4M | $22M (exactly $21,605,836) | Spiderling Studios |
| | Forts | older | $14.99 | 21,216 92% | 636k | $9.5M (exactly $9,540,835) | EarthWork Games |
| | Severed Steel | older | $24.99 | 8,880 95% | 266k | $6.7M (exactly $6,657,336) | Greylock Studio |
| | Clustertruck | older | $14.99 | 14,706 93% | 441k | $6.6M (exactly $6,613,288) | Landfall |
| | Men of War: Assault Squad | older | $9.99 | 4,029 87% | 121k | $1.2M (exactly $1,207,491) | Digitalmindsoft |
| | Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break | older | $14.99 | 1,259 78% | 38k | $566k (exactly $566,172) | ACE Team, Giant Monkey Robot |
| | Crashday Redline Edition | older | $11.99 | 1,528 89% | 46k | $550k (exactly $549,622) | Moonbyte |
| | Turbo Dismount® 2 | $19.99 | 753 95% | 23k | $452k (exactly $451,574) | Secret Exit Ltd. | |
| | Wreckreation | $39.99 | 360 63% | 11k | $432k (exactly $431,892) | Three Fields Entertainment | |
| | Ridge Racer™ Unbounded | older | $9.99 | 1,159 64% | 35k | $347k (exactly $347,352) | BUGBEAR |
| | Annihilate The Spance | · EA | $29.99 | 347 90% | 10k | $312k (exactly $312,196) | Skyglow Softworks |
| | Voxile | · EA | $17.99 | 78 69% | 2.3k | $42k (exactly $42,097) | VoxRay Games, Inc. |
| | RAGDORE | · EA | $4.99 | 220 78% | 6.6k | $33k (exactly $32,934) | GreenGO |
| | Maelstrom: The Battle for Earth Begins Enhanced | $6.99 | 33 75% | 990 | $6.9k (exactly $6,920) | KDV Games | |
| | Crafty Racer | · EA | $14.99 | 11 100% | 330 | $4.9k (exactly $4,947) | Peterclark |
| | Falling Stars... and other celestial objects | $12.99 | 7 100% | 210 | $2.7k (exactly $2,728) | From The Moon | |
| | Blow it up | $4.99 | 18 100% | 540 | $2.7k (exactly $2,695) | Brain Seal Ltd | |
| | Velocrash | · EA | $6.99 | 11 100% | 330 | $2.3k (exactly $2,307) | Apolloxian Games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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