Games › Real-Time › Real-Time + Exploration
Should I ship an Exploration Real-Time game?
Real-Time + Exploration
Only 5 developers shipped an Exploration Real-Time 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, Fall Of The MS Estonia, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 15 more are announced, ×7.5 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 $600 against a market of $630. 15 games are announced.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $0 (exactly $0) |
|---|---|
| Median | $599 (exactly $599) |
| Top 25% | $1.2k (exactly $1,188) |
| Top 5% | $6.6k (exactly $6,593) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 5 |
| Released games | 50 |
| Announced | 15 |
| 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 35% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 10%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Real-Time
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Exploration
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Real-Time, Exploration
- 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 $11.99.
The top 10 games average 78% positive over 21,371 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $50. 15 games are announced against 2 developers who shipped in the last year, ×7.5 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Real-Time with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Character CustomizationStrong odds
- + RogueliteFair
- + BuildingPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + WarPoor odds
- + Base BuildingPoor odds
- + WargamePoor odds
- + PhysicsPoor odds
- + Tower DefensePoor odds
- + Action RTSPoor odds
- + StrategyPoor odds
- + RTSPoor odds
Comparable games
Railway Empire 2018 · $6.5M 
Curse of the Dead Gods 2021 · $4.7M 
StarDrive 2013 · $1.1M 
Vaporum 2017 · $599k 
Castle Flipper 2021 · $585k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Railway Empire | older | $29.99 | 7,219 82% | 217k | $6.5M (exactly $6,494,934) | Gaming Minds Studios |
| | Curse of the Dead Gods | older | $19.99 | 7,807 84% | 234k | $4.7M (exactly $4,681,858) | Passtech Games |
| | StarDrive | older | $29.99 | 1,253 43% | 38k | $1.1M (exactly $1,127,324) | Zero Sum Games |
| | Vaporum | older | $19.99 | 998 84% | 30k | $599k (exactly $598,501) | Fatbot Games, s. r. o. |
| | Castle Flipper | older | $18.99 | 1,027 64% | 31k | $585k (exactly $585,082) | ▲ Pyramid Games |
 | Dice Legacy | older | $14.99 | 892 67% | 27k | $401k (exactly $401,132) | DESTINYbit |
 | Necrosmith 2 | older | $7.99 | 1,315 77% | 39k | $315k (exactly $315,206) | Alawar |
 | Drox Operative 2 | older | $19.99 | 275 89% | 8.3k | $165k (exactly $164,918) | Soldak Entertainment |
 | Ancient Space | older | $19.99 | 270 42% | 8.1k | $162k (exactly $161,919) | CreativeForge Games |
 | Dungeon Of Dragon Knight | older | $11.99 | 315 74% | 9.5k | $113k (exactly $113,306) | HexGameStudio |
 | Fall Of The MS Estonia | $9.99 | 22 72% | 660 | $6.6k (exactly $6,593) | Interactive Gaming Studios | |
 | Last Signal | $0.99 | 40 72% | 1.2k | $1.2k (exactly $1,188) | Under Heaven Studios | |
 | Kraktures | $9.99 | 2 100% | 60 | $599 (exactly $599) | Deggy | |
 | BaseStar | $12.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | DeKat | |
 | Skyos | · EA | $19.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | SkyOS Labs |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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