Games › Loot › Loot + Dungeon Crawler
Should I ship a Loot Dungeon Crawler?
Loot + Dungeon Crawler
Of 227 developers who shipped a Loot Dungeon Crawler 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.. 462 more are announced, ×3.3 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $3.9k, ×6.2 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $900; 1 in 20 cleared $2.1M, ×3376 the market median. Revenue is down 60% on the market; 462 games are announced against 139 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $898 (exactly $898) |
|---|---|
| Median | $3.9k (exactly $3,896) |
| Top 25% | $45k (exactly $44,955) |
| Top 5% | $2.1M (exactly $2,119,940) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 227 |
| Released games | 563 |
| Announced | 462 |
| Effort | 5 / 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 down 60% on the market, supply 60% 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.
- Loot
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
- Dungeon Crawler
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
- Systems
- Loot, Dungeon Crawler; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry RPG, Action, Action RPG
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 75% positive over 283,445 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $900. 6 in 10 of the 98 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 462 games are announced against 139 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.3 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Loot with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Artificial IntelligenceStrong odds
- + Local Co-OpStrong odds
- + SteampunkStrong odds
- + CapitalismFair
- + Turn-Based StrategyFair
- + JRPGFair
- + EconomyFair
- + IdlerFair
- + CatsFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + Creature CollectorFair
- + CollectathonFair
Comparable games
Path of Exile 2 2024 · EA · $151M 
Last Epoch 2024 · $112M 
Diablo® IV 2023 · $88M 
Grim Dawn 2016 · $70M 
Gunfire Reborn 2021 · $53M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Path of Exile 2 | · EA | $29.99 | 167,730 76% | 5.0M | $151M (exactly $150,906,681) | Grinding Gear Games |
| | Last Epoch | older | $34.99 | 106,364 76% | 3.2M | $112M (exactly $111,650,291) | Eleventh Hour Games |
| | Diablo® IV | older | $49.99 | 58,668 69% | 1.8M | $88M (exactly $87,984,400) | Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. |
| | Grim Dawn | older | $24.99 | 92,979 93% | 2.8M | $70M (exactly $69,706,356) | Crate Entertainment |
| | Gunfire Reborn | older | $19.99 | 88,536 93% | 2.7M | $53M (exactly $53,095,039) | Gunfire Reborn Studio |
 | Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem | older | $19.99 | 61,837 55% | 1.9M | $37M (exactly $37,083,649) | WOLCEN Studio |
 | Enter the Gungeon | older | $14.99 | 79,392 95% | 2.4M | $36M (exactly $35,702,582) | Dodge Roll |
 | Torchlight II | older | $19.99 | 33,094 92% | 993k | $20M (exactly $19,846,472) | Runic Games |
 | Wayfinder | $24.99 | 25,104 60% | 753k | $19M (exactly $18,820,469) | Airship Syndicate | |
 | Neon Abyss | older | $31.49 | 19,709 86% | 591k | $19M (exactly $18,619,092) | Veewo Games |
 | Titan Quest II | · EA | $34.99 | 17,398 81% | 522k | $18M (exactly $18,262,681) | Grimlore Games |
 | Mistfall Hunter | $24.99 | 16,045 53% | 481k | $12M (exactly $12,028,936) | Bellring Games | |
 | Fellowship | · EA | $24.99 | 15,357 74% | 461k | $12M (exactly $11,513,143) | Chief Rebel |
 | Deadzone: Rogue | $24.99 | 15,041 82% | 451k | $11M (exactly $11,276,238) | Prophecy Games | |
 | Diablo II: Resurrected – Infernal Edition | $39.99 | 5,855 86% | 176k | $7.0M (exactly $7,024,244) | Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. | |
 | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
 | Mortal Sin | $24.99 | 5,583 94% | 167k | $4.2M (exactly $4,185,575) | Nikola Todorovic | |
 | The Slormancer | $19.99 | 6,926 81% | 208k | $4.2M (exactly $4,153,522) | Slormite Studios |
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.