Should I ship a Detective PvE game?
PvE + Detective
Of 41 developers who shipped a Detective PvE 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.. 58 more are announced, ×2.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $600, level with the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $210; 1 in 20 cleared $170k, ×286 the market median. Revenue is down 50% on the market; 58 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $210 (exactly $210) |
|---|---|
| Median | $599 (exactly $599) |
| Top 25% | $2.4k (exactly $2,398) |
| Top 5% | $180k (exactly $179,888) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 41 |
| Released games | 86 |
| Announced | 58 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Low |
| Typical price | $4.99 |
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 50% on the market, supply as many developers as the period before.
Free games: 13%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is low: the lowest rating among its tags.
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- PvE; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Exploration, Puzzle, Action-Adventure
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $15.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with First-Person, 3D, Atmospheric
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $15.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 85% positive over 13,936 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $210. 8 in 10 of the 24 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 58 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.8 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
PvE with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Dating SimFair
- + IdlerFair
- + MinigamesFair
- + TypingFair
- + Extraction ShooterPoor odds
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + HeistPoor odds
- + MMORPGPoor odds
- + Real-TimePoor odds
- + NavalPoor odds
- + SpaceshipsPoor odds
- + MarsPoor odds
Comparable games
Ghost Watchers 2025 · $5.7M 
Deceive Inc. 2023 · $2.9M 
Kvark 2024 · $276k 
Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal P.I. 2023 · $258k 
This is a Ghost 2024 · $187k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Ghost Watchers | $14.99 | 12,729 86% | 382k | $5.7M (exactly $5,724,231) | Renderise | |
| | Deceive Inc. | older | $19.99 | 4,755 84% | 143k | $2.9M (exactly $2,851,574) | Sweet Bandits Studios |
| | Kvark | $19.99 | 461 86% | 14k | $276k (exactly $276,462) | Latest Past, Perun Creative | |
| | Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal P.I. | older | $9.99 | 860 93% | 26k | $258k (exactly $257,742) | D&A Studios |
| | This is a Ghost | older | $16.99 | 367 92% | 11k | $187k (exactly $187,060) | Nuci |
 | Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale | older | $17.99 | 340 77% | 10k | $183k (exactly $183,498) | Active Fungus Studios |
 | All in Abyss: Judge the Fake | $15.99 | 375 54% | 11k | $180k (exactly $179,888) | ACQUIRE Corp., WSS playground | |
 | Demonsomnia | · EA older | $13.99 | 278 33% | 8.3k | $117k (exactly $116,677) | Serhat Akgul |
 | Among The Whispers - Provocation | $14.99 | 101 79% | 3.0k | $45k (exactly $45,420) | D&A Studios | |
 | Deadly Quiet | $9.75 | 89 55% | 2.7k | $26k (exactly $26,032) | Tarba Paul Cornel, Abdul Rafy | |
 | Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split | $24.99 | 24 50% | 720 | $18k (exactly $17,993) | Dead Drop Studios LLC | |
 | DOOMED Detective Game | $6.99 | 65 46% | 2.0k | $14k (exactly $13,630) | Azikton Studio | |
 | Fantastic Findings Hidden Seasons | $11.99 | 29 89% | 870 | $10k (exactly $10,431) | Shapeshift Entertainment ApS | |
 | Entities | $4.99 | 53 50% | 1.6k | $7.9k (exactly $7,934) | EY-Studio | |
 | Iridescent | $9.99 | 10 90% | 300 | $3.0k (exactly $2,997) | DraymaDev |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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