Games › Flight › Flight + Spaceships
Should I ship a Spaceship Flight game?
Flight + Spaceships
Only 16 developers shipped a Spaceship Flight 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, Jump Space, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 24 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.2k, ×1.9 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $50; 1 in 20 cleared $6.4M, ×10241 the market median. Revenue is down 35% on the market; 24 games are announced against 13 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $0 (exactly $0) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.2k (exactly $1,199) |
| Top 25% | $67k (exactly $66,723) |
| Top 5% | $6.4M (exactly $6,431,183) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 16 |
| Released games | 62 |
| Announced | 24 |
| 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 down 35% on the market, supply 335% 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.
- Flight
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Spaceships
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Flight; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Exploration, PvE, Adventure
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Atmospheric
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 82% positive over 15,796 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $50. 24 games are announced against 13 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Flight with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Choose Your Own AdventureFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Quick-Time EventsFair
- + CatsFair
- + Life SimPoor odds
- + TradingPoor odds
- + MiningPoor odds
- + CraftingPoor odds
- + Base BuildingPoor odds
- + EconomyPoor odds
- + RTSPoor odds
- + Cold WarPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | STAR WARS™: Squadrons | older | $39.99 | 25,086 66% | 753k | $30M (exactly $30,095,674) | MOTIVE |
| | Avorion | older | $24.99 | 13,001 90% | 390k | $9.7M (exactly $9,746,850) | Boxelware |
| | Jump Space | · EA | $19.99 | 10,724 85% | 322k | $6.4M (exactly $6,431,183) | Keepsake Games |
| | Starpoint Gemini Warlords | older | $34.99 | 3,076 72% | 92k | $3.2M (exactly $3,228,877) | Little Green Men Games |
| | Starpoint Gemini 2 | older | $34.99 | 3,021 70% | 91k | $3.2M (exactly $3,171,144) | Little Green Men Games |
| | Chorus | older | $24.99 | 3,876 81% | 116k | $2.9M (exactly $2,905,837) | Deep Silver Fishlabs |
| | Ostranauts | $19.99 | 3,137 77% | 94k | $1.9M (exactly $1,881,259) | Blue Bottle Games | |
| | Starminer | · EA | $29.99 | 1,818 72% | 55k | $1.6M (exactly $1,635,655) | CoolAndGoodGames |
| | Flight Of Nova | · EA older | $29.99 | 537 93% | 16k | $483k (exactly $483,139) | Aerovery Lab |
| | Evochron Mercenary | older | $14.99 | 403 75% | 12k | $181k (exactly $181,229) | StarWraith 3D Games LLC |
| | HELL GALAXY | $24.99 | 89 74% | 2.7k | $67k (exactly $66,723) | Italian Games Factory | |
| | A-Spec First Assault | $14.99 | 9 55% | 270 | $4.0k (exactly $4,047) | Digitum Software | |
| | Starship Fighters: Space Combat Simulator | · EA | $24.99 | 2 0% | 60 | $1.5k (exactly $1,499) | Hard Shark Games |
| | Timeloop Titans | $9.99 | 5 100% | 150 | $1.5k (exactly $1,498) | LapaGames | |
| | Drawn to Drift | $9.99 | 4 100% | 120 | $1.2k (exactly $1,199) | FrogForgeGames | |
| | Pocket Rocket | $2.99 | 6 100% | 180 | $538 (exactly $538) | Jazzcat games | |
| | 星宇战舰 Astral-Battlecraft | $4.99 | 2 0% | 60 | $299 (exactly $299) | Jilin Code Rabbit Network Game Co.,Ltd. |
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.