Games › Vehicular Combat › Vehicular Combat + Exploration
Should I ship an Exploration Vehicular Combat game?
Vehicular Combat + Exploration
Of 47 developers who shipped an Exploration Vehicular Combat 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.. 121 more are announced, ×3.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.3k, ×3.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $240; 1 in 20 cleared $1.8M, ×2949 the market median. Revenue is up 30% on the market; 121 games are announced against 35 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $240 (exactly $240) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.3k (exactly $2,279) |
| Top 25% | $77k (exactly $76,752) |
| Top 5% | $1.9M (exactly $1,851,759) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 47 |
| Released games | 121 |
| Announced | 121 |
| 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 up 30% on the market, supply 170% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 7%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Vehicular Combat
- 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
- Vehicular Combat, Exploration; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Open World, Shooter
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $24.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with First-Person
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $24.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 73% positive over 49,567 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $240. 7 in 10 of the 14 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 121 games are announced against 35 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.5 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Vehicular Combat with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Looter ShooterFair
- + BuildingPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + CraftingPoor odds
- + Open WorldPoor odds
- + ManagementPoor odds
- + SandboxPoor odds
- + Real Time TacticsPoor odds
- + ModernPoor odds
- + MechsPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced | $59.99 | 26,652 81% | 800k | $48M (exactly $47,965,604) | Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft Barcelona, U… (Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft Barcelona, Ubisoft Bordeaux, Ubisoft Belgrade, Ubisoft Chengdu, Ubisoft India, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Romania) | |
| | Mad Max | older | $19.99 | 57,651 91% | 1.7M | $35M (exactly $34,573,305) | Avalanche Studios |
| | Trailmakers | older | $24.99 | 33,465 92% | 1.0M | $25M (exactly $25,088,710) | Flashbulb |
| | RAGE 2 | older | $39.99 | 14,019 64% | 421k | $17M (exactly $16,818,594) | id Software, Avalanche Studios |
| | TerraTech | older | $24.99 | 20,564 92% | 617k | $15M (exactly $15,416,831) | Payload Studios |
| | Avorion | older | $24.99 | 13,001 90% | 390k | $9.7M (exactly $9,746,850) | Boxelware |
| | SAND: Raiders of Sophie | · EA | $24.99 | 12,485 49% | 375k | $9.4M (exactly $9,360,004) | Hologryph, TowerHaus |
| | SimplePlanes | older | $12.99 | 9,811 93% | 294k | $3.8M (exactly $3,823,347) | Jundroo, LLC |
| | Lost Skies | $24.99 | 2,470 63% | 74k | $1.9M (exactly $1,851,759) | Bossa Studios | |
| | SAND LAND | older | $59.99 | 1,018 86% | 31k | $1.8M (exactly $1,832,095) | ILCA, Inc. |
| | FUMES | · EA | $14.99 | 2,816 95% | 84k | $1.3M (exactly $1,266,355) | FUMES team |
| | SimplePlanes 2 | · EA | $19.99 | 1,316 92% | 39k | $789k (exactly $789,205) | Jundroo, LLC |
| | Vietnam War | · EA | $14.99 | 1,704 84% | 51k | $766k (exactly $766,289) | Thorium Game Lab |
| | Badlands Crew - Drive, Command, Conquer | $18.99 | 1,126 78% | 34k | $641k (exactly $641,482) | Runner Duck | |
| | Echoes of Elysium | · EA | $19.99 | 506 61% | 15k | $303k (exactly $303,448) | Loric Games, Inc. |
| | G-Rebels | · EA | $29.99 | 254 79% | 7.6k | $229k (exactly $228,524) | Reakktor Studios |
| | Tankenstein | · EA | $17.99 | 238 89% | 7.1k | $128k (exactly $128,449) | Landship Games LTD |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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