Games › Survival › Survival + Detective
Should I ship a Detective Survival game?
Survival + Detective
Of 49 developers who shipped a Detective Survival 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 $900, ×1.4 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $140k, ×235 the market median. Revenue is down 60% on the market; 86 games are announced against 29 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $179 (exactly $179) |
|---|---|
| Median | $898 (exactly $898) |
| Top 25% | $2.7k (exactly $2,691) |
| Top 5% | $147k (exactly $147,477) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 49 |
| Released games | 164 |
| Announced | 86 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| 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 60% on the market, supply 45% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 13%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Survival; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Investigation, Action, Adventure
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $9.75 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Atmospheric, First-Person, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $9.75 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 83% positive over 4,999 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 9 in 10 of the 24 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
Survival with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Social DeductionFair
- + Word GameFair
- + CatsFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + IdlerFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + DogsFair
- + Martial ArtsLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
Comparable games
Contraband Police 2023 · $22M 
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc 2016 · $22M 
Pathologic 2 2019 · $10M 
>observer_ 2017 · $3.6M 
Pathologic 3 2026 · $2.7M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Contraband Police | older | $29.99 | 24,882 95% | 746k | $22M (exactly $22,386,335) | Crazy Rocks |
| | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | older | $19.99 | 36,194 96% | 1.1M | $22M (exactly $21,705,542) | Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd., Abstraction G… (Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd., Abstraction Games) |
| | Pathologic 2 | older | $34.99 | 9,554 92% | 287k | $10M (exactly $10,028,834) | Ice-Pick Lodge |
| | >observer_ | older | $29.99 | 4,030 79% | 121k | $3.6M (exactly $3,625,791) | Bloober Team SA |
| | Pathologic 3 | $34.99 | 2,528 80% | 76k | $2.7M (exactly $2,653,642) | Ice-Pick Lodge | |
 | Alan Wake's American Nightmare | older | $8.99 | 8,352 74% | 251k | $2.3M (exactly $2,252,534) | Remedy Entertainment |
 | Kona | older | $14.99 | 2,795 82% | 84k | $1.3M (exactly $1,256,912) | Parabole |
 | 노베나 디아볼로스 | older | $18.99 | 1,462 93% | 44k | $833k (exactly $832,901) | H5DEV Games |
 | Oh Deer | older | $9.99 | 2,125 84% | 64k | $637k (exactly $636,862) | Cozy Cabin Studios |
 | West Hunt | older | $9.99 | 1,522 84% | 46k | $456k (exactly $456,143) | NewGen |
 | Misty Judgment | $8.99 | 1,170 92% | 35k | $316k (exactly $315,549) | 次元边界 | |
 | Sister Ray | $11.99 | 410 95% | 12k | $147k (exactly $147,477) | The Growing Stones | |
 | 晨昏线 | $9.99 | 427 76% | 13k | $128k (exactly $127,972) | Enter Games | |
 | Deadly Trick | · EA | $8.99 | 141 95% | 4.2k | $38k (exactly $38,028) | Finalblow Co. |
 | Deadly Quiet | $9.75 | 89 55% | 2.7k | $26k (exactly $26,032) | Tarba Paul Cornel, Abdul Rafy | |
 | Bounty Trail | $6.99 | 84 52% | 2.5k | $18k (exactly $17,615) | September Games | |
 | Echoes of Dread | $4.99 | 86 84% | 2.6k | $13k (exactly $12,874) | Reaper GS, Kazakov Studios | |
 | Terminal 81R | $4.99 | 41 95% | 1.2k | $6.1k (exactly $6,138) | David Pateti | |
 | DayOff: Moonriver incident | $6.99 | 23 91% | 690 | $4.8k (exactly $4,823) | jetzackgames |
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.