Games › Survival › Survival + Heist
Should I ship a Heist Survival game?
Survival + Heist
Only 5 developers shipped a Heist Survival 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, Dark Hours, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 26 more are announced, ×6.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.
Only 4 developers shipped this in the last year, under the 5 a verdict needs; over 2 years the middle one made $21k against a market of $630. 26 games are announced.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $3.8k (exactly $3,775) |
|---|---|
| Median | $21k (exactly $20,979) |
| Top 25% | $30k (exactly $30,270) |
| Top 5% | $1.0M (exactly $1,043,256) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 5 |
| Released games | 33 |
| Announced | 26 |
| 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 300% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 30%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Survival
- 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 $29.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 82% positive over 90,474 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $3.8k. 26 games are announced against 4 developers who shipped in the last year, ×6.5 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Survival with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Social DeductionFair
- + Word GameFair
- + CatsFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + IdlerFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + DogsFair
- + Martial ArtsLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition | older | $39.99 | 71,706 84% | 2.2M | $86M (exactly $86,025,688) | Eidos-Montréal, Crystal Dynamics, Nixxe… (Eidos-Montréal, Crystal Dynamics, Nixxes, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral interactive (Linux)) |
| | Hobo: Tough Life | older | $29.99 | 8,679 84% | 260k | $7.8M (exactly $7,808,496) | Perun Creative |
| | Dead Rising 4 | older | $29.99 | 4,773 59% | 143k | $4.3M (exactly $4,294,268) | Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc. |
| | Dark Hours | $9.99 | 3,481 81% | 104k | $1.0M (exactly $1,043,256) | Piece of Cake studios | |
| | Last Holiday | · EA older | $29.99 | 387 40% | 12k | $348k (exactly $348,184) | Boomer Games s.r.o. |
| | Anarchy: Wolf's law | older | $9.99 | 768 76% | 23k | $230k (exactly $230,170) | Anarchy Games |
| | The Game of Annie 安妮的游戏 | older | $7.99 | 466 62% | 14k | $112k (exactly $111,700) | potentknight |
| | OPG: Clan Wars | $9.99 | 101 74% | 3.0k | $30k (exactly $30,270) | Anarchy Games, Street's Game | |
| | Hazard Levels | · EA | $9.99 | 70 71% | 2.1k | $21k (exactly $20,979) | Wales Interactive |
| | The Story of The Flood | older | $4.99 | 43 67% | 1.3k | $6.4k (exactly $6,437) | ZHANG FAN |
| | Roulette Heist | $6.99 | 18 94% | 540 | $3.8k (exactly $3,775) | DreamArk Lab | |
| | Fathoms | · EA | $7.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Bloop |
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.