Games › Economy › Economy + Programming
Should I ship a Programming Economy game?
Economy + Programming
Only 19 developers shipped a Programming Economy 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, The Farmer Was Replaced, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 27 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $10k, ×16 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $2.6k; 1 in 20 cleared $2.7M, ×4350 the market median. Revenue is down 95% on the market; 27 games are announced against 16 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $2.5k (exactly $2,545) |
|---|---|
| Median | $10k (exactly $9,960) |
| Top 25% | $187k (exactly $186,507) |
| Top 5% | $2.7M (exactly $2,732,065) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 19 |
| Released games | 39 |
| Announced | 27 |
| 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 95% on the market, supply 435% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 5%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Economy
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
- Programming
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
- Systems
- Economy, Programming; all of the top 25% also carry Automation, Logic, Simulation
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Text-Based
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 92% positive over 11,835 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $2.6k. 27 games are announced against 16 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Economy with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Job SimulatorFair
- + Football (Soccer)Fair
- + ScienceFair
- + MiningFair
- + LootFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + God GameFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + ArcadeFair
- + Strategy RPGFair
Comparable games
Mad Games Tycoon 2 2023 · $5.5M 
Software Inc. 2015 · EA · $5.2M 
The Farmer Was Replaced 2025 · $2.7M 
Mad Games Tycoon 2016 · $1.7M 
Screeps: World 2016 · $1.2M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Mad Games Tycoon 2 | older | $24.99 | 7,355 93% | 221k | $5.5M (exactly $5,514,044) | Eggcode |
| | Software Inc. | · EA older | $22.99 | 7,576 94% | 227k | $5.2M (exactly $5,225,167) | Coredumping |
| | The Farmer Was Replaced | $9.99 | 9,116 95% | 273k | $2.7M (exactly $2,732,065) | Timon Herzog | |
| | Mad Games Tycoon | older | $14.99 | 3,700 91% | 111k | $1.7M (exactly $1,663,890) | Eggcode |
| | Screeps: World | older | $19.99 | 1,934 86% | 58k | $1.2M (exactly $1,159,820) | Screeps, LLC |
 | City Game Studio: Your Game Dev Adventure Begins | older | $19.99 | 1,779 91% | 53k | $1.1M (exactly $1,066,866) | Binogure Studio 🐺 |
 | Kaizen: A Factory Story | $19.99 | 694 91% | 21k | $416k (exactly $416,192) | Coincidence | |
 | Data Center | $8.99 | 916 76% | 27k | $247k (exactly $247,045) | Waseku | |
 | Crypto Mining Simulator | older | $4.99 | 1,419 65% | 43k | $212k (exactly $212,424) | Satosha Nakamoti |
 | Tower Networking Inc. | · EA | $19.99 | 317 95% | 9.5k | $190k (exactly $190,105) | Pocosia Studios |
 | Craftlings | $19.99 | 311 86% | 9.3k | $187k (exactly $186,507) | ARIANO Games GmbH | |
 | MegaFactory Titan | $19.99 | 150 76% | 4.5k | $90k (exactly $89,955) | Q Switched Productions, LLC | |
 | Adventure Land - The Code MMORPG | $14.99 | 144 84% | 4.3k | $65k (exactly $64,757) | Wizard | |
 | Screeps: Arena | $19.99 | 105 82% | 3.2k | $63k (exactly $62,968) | Screeps, LLC | |
 | Web Host Simulator | · EA | $24.99 | 42 26% | 1.3k | $31k (exactly $31,487) | Chibum |
 | SysAdmin Odyssey - Back to the office | · EA | $8.30 | 40 75% | 1.2k | $10k (exactly $9,960) | Molodoy-GameDev |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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