Games › Destruction › Destruction + Strategy
Should I ship a Strategy Destruction game?
Destruction + Strategy
Of 101 developers who shipped a Strategy 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.. 270 more are announced, ×4.3 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 $150; 1 in 20 cleared $850k, ×1356 the market median. Revenue is up 15% on the market; 270 games are announced against 63 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $150 (exactly $150) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.4k (exactly $2,395) |
| Top 25% | $32k (exactly $32,384) |
| Top 5% | $852k (exactly $851,659) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 101 |
| Released games | 317 |
| Announced | 270 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $7.81 |
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 up 15% on the market, supply 65% 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
- Strategy
- 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, Strategy; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Simulation, Physics
- Price point
- $7.81 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Colorful, 2D, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $7.81.
The top 10 games average 90% positive over 35,807 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $150. 7 in 10 of the 44 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 270 games are announced against 63 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.3 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
Battlefield 4™ 2020 · $83M 
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS 2019 · $76M 
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 2014 · $32M 
Tropico 6 2019 · $24M 
Besiege 2020 · $22M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Battlefield 4™ | older | $39.99 | 69,373 84% | 2.1M | $83M (exactly $83,226,788) | DICE |
| | Total War: THREE KINGDOMS | older | $39.99 | 63,110 82% | 1.9M | $76M (exactly $75,713,067) | CREATIVE ASSEMBLY, Feral Interactive (M… (CREATIVE ASSEMBLY, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux)) |
| | Men of War: Assault Squad 2 | older | $29.99 | 35,744 91% | 1.1M | $32M (exactly $32,158,877) | Digitalmindsoft |
| | Tropico 6 | older | $39.99 | 19,837 88% | 595k | $24M (exactly $23,798,449) | Limbic Entertainment, Realmforge Studios |
| | Besiege | older | $14.99 | 48,045 95% | 1.4M | $22M (exactly $21,605,836) | Spiderling Studios |
 | Hardspace: Shipbreaker | older | $34.99 | 19,431 89% | 583k | $20M (exactly $20,396,721) | Blackbird Interactive |
 | Dawn of Man | older | $24.99 | 17,094 86% | 513k | $13M (exactly $12,815,372) | Madruga Works |
 | 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 |
 | Forts | older | $14.99 | 21,216 92% | 636k | $9.5M (exactly $9,540,835) | EarthWork Games |
 | Diablo II: Resurrected – Infernal Edition | $39.99 | 5,855 86% | 176k | $7.0M (exactly $7,024,244) | Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. | |
 | Space Engineers 2 | · EA | $29.99 | 5,095 74% | 153k | $4.6M (exactly $4,583,972) | Keen Software House |
 | Aviassembly | · EA | $9.99 | 9,323 96% | 280k | $2.8M (exactly $2,794,103) | Jelle Booij |
 | Bills Must Be Paid | $6.99 | 9,928 96% | 298k | $2.1M (exactly $2,081,902) | Rike Games | |
 | ICBM: Escalation | $29.99 | 1,248 86% | 37k | $1.1M (exactly $1,122,826) | SoftWarWare | |
 | The Scouring | · EA | $24.99 | 1,136 88% | 34k | $852k (exactly $851,659) | Orc Group |
 | Annihilate The Spance | · EA | $29.99 | 347 90% | 10k | $312k (exactly $312,196) | Skyglow Softworks |
 | Castle Craft | $19.99 | 480 82% | 14k | $288k (exactly $287,856) | Twin Earth | |
 | A Gentlemen's Dispute | $7.99 | 1,199 94% | 36k | $287k (exactly $287,400) | Blast Furnace Games | |
 | Fracture Field | $6.99 | 1,196 75% | 36k | $251k (exactly $250,801) | Type Ten |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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