Games › Destruction › Destruction + Space
Should I ship a Space Destruction game?
Destruction + Space
Of 56 developers who shipped a Space 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.. 86 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 $2.7k, ×4.3 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $540; 1 in 20 cleared $350k, ×571 the market median. Revenue is down 85% on the market; 86 games are announced against 29 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $539 (exactly $539) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.7k (exactly $2,728) |
| Top 25% | $18k (exactly $18,263) |
| Top 5% | $359k (exactly $358,524) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 56 |
| Released games | 164 |
| Announced | 86 |
| 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 85% on the market, supply as many developers as 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.
- Destruction
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Space
- 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; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Physics, Arcade
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Top-Down, Colorful
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 79% positive over 8,780 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $540. 7 in 10 of the 29 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 86 games are announced against 29 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.0 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Destruction with a different setting or mood, 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
Universe Sandbox 2015 · EA · $25M 
Hardspace: Shipbreaker 2022 · $20M 
Planetary Annihilation: TITANS 2015 · $10M 
Stranded: Alien Dawn 2023 · $10M 
Starbase 2021 · EA · $6.5M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Universe Sandbox | · EA older | $29.99 | 27,843 96% | 835k | $25M (exactly $25,050,347) | Giant Army |
| | Hardspace: Shipbreaker | older | $34.99 | 19,431 89% | 583k | $20M (exactly $20,396,721) | Blackbird Interactive |
| | Planetary Annihilation: TITANS | older | $29.99 | 11,401 84% | 342k | $10M (exactly $10,257,480) | Planetary Annihilation Inc |
| | Stranded: Alien Dawn | older | $34.99 | 9,715 84% | 291k | $10M (exactly $10,197,836) | Haemimont Games |
| | Starbase | · EA older | $34.99 | 6,217 56% | 187k | $6.5M (exactly $6,525,985) | Frozenbyte |
 | Space Engineers 2 | · EA | $29.99 | 5,095 74% | 153k | $4.6M (exactly $4,583,972) | Keen Software House |
 | Starpoint Gemini 2 | older | $34.99 | 3,021 70% | 91k | $3.2M (exactly $3,171,144) | Little Green Men Games |
 | Red Faction®: Armageddon™ | older | $19.99 | 2,615 70% | 78k | $1.6M (exactly $1,568,215) | Volition |
 | Taur | older | $24.99 | 2,011 79% | 60k | $1.5M (exactly $1,507,647) | Echo Entertainment |
 | To The Core | older | $7.99 | 5,087 92% | 153k | $1.2M (exactly $1,219,354) | SomethingExtra |
 | Bionic Bay | $19.99 | 750 84% | 23k | $450k (exactly $449,775) | Psychoflow Studio, Mureena Oy | |
 | Galactic Glitch | $12.99 | 920 89% | 28k | $359k (exactly $358,524) | Crunchy Leaf Games | |
 | Annihilate The Spance | · EA | $29.99 | 347 90% | 10k | $312k (exactly $312,196) | Skyglow Softworks |
 | Dawn Apart | · EA | $19.99 | 245 68% | 7.4k | $147k (exactly $146,926) | Industrial Technology and Witchcraft |
 | TOP DOG | $9.99 | 263 88% | 7.9k | $79k (exactly $78,821) | MorfeoDev | |
 | Rock Crusher | $6.99 | 352 84% | 11k | $74k (exactly $73,814) | Mini Fun Games | |
 | Nebulock | $2.99 | 583 86% | 17k | $52k (exactly $52,295) | LostVolBytes | |
 | Planet Killer | $12.99 | 94 79% | 2.8k | $37k (exactly $36,632) | Talisman One Studio | |
 | Deep Space Exploitation | $8.99 | 131 96% | 3.9k | $35k (exactly $35,331) | JuhrJuhr |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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