Games › Destruction › Destruction + Swordplay
Should I ship a Swordplay Destruction game?
Destruction + Swordplay
Only 6 developers shipped a Swordplay 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, Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 23 more are announced, ×12 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.
Only 2 developers shipped this in the last year, under the 5 a verdict needs; over 2 years the middle one made $4.9k against a market of $630. 23 games are announced.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $359 (exactly $359) |
|---|---|
| Median | $4.9k (exactly $4,852) |
| Top 25% | $9.0k (exactly $8,992) |
| Top 5% | $628k (exactly $628,486) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 6 |
| Released games | 25 |
| Announced | 23 |
| 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 too few recent games to read momentum, supply 50% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 16%, 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
- Swordplay
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Destruction, Swordplay
- Price point
- $9.99 typical
Why players buy here
Fewer than 10 games in the last 2 years; sentiment and price figures use the all window.
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 86% positive over 6,344 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $360. 8 in 10 of the 5 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 23 games are announced against 2 developers who shipped in the last year, ×12 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
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae 2014 · $823k 
Clone Drone in the Hyperdome 2024 · $628k 
BRUTALISTICK VR 2024 · EA · $537k 
Ed-0: Zombie Uprising 2023 · $190k 
Frenzy VR 2022 · EA · $92k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae | older | $9.99 | 2,747 81% | 82k | $823k (exactly $823,276) | Zenith Blue |
| | Clone Drone in the Hyperdome | $19.99 | 1,048 91% | 31k | $628k (exactly $628,486) | Doborog Games | |
| | BRUTALISTICK VR | · EA older | $9.99 | 1,793 94% | 54k | $537k (exactly $537,362) | Kubunautilus |
| | Ed-0: Zombie Uprising | older | $29.99 | 211 72% | 6.3k | $190k (exactly $189,837) | LANCARSE |
| | Frenzy VR | · EA older | $14.99 | 205 60% | 6.2k | $92k (exactly $92,188) | Innoverse Ltd |
 | Diatomic | older | $9.99 | 135 76% | 4.1k | $40k (exactly $40,460) | Diatomic Studios |
 | Astro Duel 2 | older | $19.99 | 59 100% | 1.8k | $35k (exactly $35,382) | Rusty Moyher |
 | 天下統一SSB | older | $69.99 | 9 44% | 270 | $19k (exactly $18,897) | Systemsoft beta, Inc. |
 | Cubes and Knights | older | $7.99 | 78 93% | 2.3k | $19k (exactly $18,697) | Sergey Bobrov |
 | Stop Sign VR Tools | · EA older | $5.99 | 59 84% | 1.8k | $11k (exactly $10,602) | Reality Inside Ltd. |
 | Robin Hood: Sherwood Defenders | $11.99 | 25 44% | 750 | $9.0k (exactly $8,992) | MeanAstronauts | |
 | A Game About Breaking Pots | $5.99 | 27 100% | 810 | $4.9k (exactly $4,852) | Glenn Verheij | |
 | Last Stronghold | $3.99 | 8 62% | 240 | $958 (exactly $958) | skR1me | |
 | Bighead Duel | $3.99 | 3 100% | 90 | $359 (exactly $359) | Kim Hyunwoo | |
 | Groovy Labs | $9.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Body Mind Games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.