Games › Hero Shooter › Hero Shooter + PvP
Should I ship a PvP Hero Shooter?
Hero Shooter + PvP
Of 27 developers who shipped a paid PvP Hero Shooter 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.. 5 in 10 of the games here are free to play and sit outside these figures. 127 more are announced, ×7.5 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 9 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.3k, ×1.7 the market's $1.3k for a 9 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $240; 1 in 20 cleared $1.7M, ×1289 the market median. Revenue is up 180% on the market; 127 games are announced against 17 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $239 (exactly $239) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.3k (exactly $2,274) |
| Top 25% | $132k (exactly $131,568) |
| Top 5% | $1.7M (exactly $1,736,292) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 27 |
| Released games | 169 |
| Announced | 127 |
| Effort | 9 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Low |
| Typical price | $7.99 |
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 180% on the market, supply 70% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 50%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is low: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Hero Shooter
- effort 9 / 10 · low · competitive netcode plus hero balance and content cadence
- PvP
- effort 8 / 10 · low · authoritative servers, latency compensation, cheating
What it takes
- Effort
- 9 / 10 · studio only
- Systems
- Hero Shooter, PvP; 9 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Character Customization, Shooter
- Price point
- $7.99 typical · top 25% priced $24.99 or above
- Art
- 6 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, First-Person, Third Person
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $24.99 or above; the middle game at $7.99.
The top 10 games average 79% positive over 54,572 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $240. 6 in 10 of the 34 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 127 games are announced against 17 developers who shipped in the last year, ×7.5 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Hero Shooter with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + SimulationLong shot
- + Bullet HellLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + MedievalLong shot
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + SuperheroPoor odds
- + Battle RoyalePoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + PlatformerPoor odds
- + Character CustomizationPoor odds
- + PhysicsPoor odds
- + AliensPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Battlefield™ 2042 | older | $59.99 | 260,308 49% | 7.8M | $468M (exactly $468,476,308) | DICE |
| | Titanfall® 2 | older | $29.99 | 255,050 95% | 7.7M | $229M (exactly $229,468,485) | Respawn Entertainment |
| | Marathon | $39.99 | 44,919 81% | 1.3M | $54M (exactly $53,889,324) | Bungie | |
| | Plants vs. Zombies™ Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition | older | $29.99 | 45,480 90% | 1.4M | $41M (exactly $40,918,356) | PopCap |
| | Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville™ | older | $29.99 | 15,372 71% | 461k | $14M (exactly $13,830,188) | PopCap |
| | Friends vs Friends | older | $9.99 | 10,860 83% | 326k | $3.3M (exactly $3,254,742) | Brainwash Gang |
| | Primal Carnage: Extinction | older | $12.99 | 8,283 84% | 248k | $3.2M (exactly $3,227,885) | Circle Five Studios, Pub Games |
| | Deceive Inc. | older | $19.99 | 4,755 84% | 143k | $2.9M (exactly $2,851,574) | Sweet Bandits Studios |
| | Raw Data | older | $39.99 | 2,036 81% | 61k | $2.4M (exactly $2,442,589) | Survios |
| | Gigantic: Rampage Edition | older | $19.99 | 3,795 65% | 114k | $2.3M (exactly $2,275,862) | Abstraction Games |
| | Wild Assault | $14.99 | 3,861 68% | 116k | $1.7M (exactly $1,736,292) | Combat Cat Studio | |
| | Heroes of Valor | · EA | $14.99 | 1,324 90% | 40k | $595k (exactly $595,403) | Fancy Cat Interactive |
| | IRON REBELLION | $24.99 | 772 84% | 23k | $579k (exactly $578,768) | Black Beach Studio | |
| | Neighbors: Suburban Warfare | · EA | $9.99 | 1,906 66% | 57k | $571k (exactly $571,228) | Invisible Walls |
| | KILLER INN | · EA | $9.99 | 670 44% | 20k | $201k (exactly $200,799) | Square Enix, Tactic Studios |
| | Birds of War | $9.99 | 439 87% | 13k | $132k (exactly $131,568) | HexNest Games | |
| | Last Flag | $4.99 | 576 73% | 17k | $86k (exactly $86,227) | Night Street Games | |
| | STARVAULT VR | $24.99 | 66 89% | 2.0k | $49k (exactly $49,480) | Theia Games | |
| | Touhou Brawl | $11.99 | 39 51% | 1.2k | $14k (exactly $14,028) | FIVE DUCK GAMES |
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.