Games › Hunting › Hunting + Hidden Object
Should I ship a Hidden Object Hunting game?
Hunting + Hidden Object
Only 16 developers shipped a Hidden Object Hunting 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, Afterinfection, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 31 more are announced, ×6.2 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.3k, ×2.1 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $150; 1 in 20 cleared $120k, ×199 the market median. Revenue is down 35% on the market; 31 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $150 (exactly $150) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.3k (exactly $1,349) |
| Top 25% | $7.0k (exactly $6,966) |
| Top 5% | $125k (exactly $124,871) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 16 |
| Released games | 56 |
| Announced | 31 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $8.99 |
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 55% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 13%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Hunting
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Hidden Object
- effort 2 / 10 · high · static scenes with click targets
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Hunting, Hidden Object
- Price point
- $8.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 10 games average 59% positive over 628 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $150. 9 in 10 of the 14 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 31 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year, ×6.2 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Hunting with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Post-apocalypticPoor odds
- + Base BuildingPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + AgriculturePoor odds
- + SandboxPoor odds
- + MagicPoor odds
- + SimulationPoor odds
- + BuildingPoor odds
- + CraftingPoor odds
- + RoguelikePoor odds
Comparable games
Russian Village Simulator 2023 · $800k 
Prehistoric Hunt 2020 · EA · $366k 
Morels: The Hunt 2019 · $156k 
Afterinfection 2025 · $125k 
ScrewUp 2021 · $78k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Russian Village Simulator | older | $29.99 | 889 84% | 27k | $800k (exactly $799,833) | VD Games, PropilGames |
| | Prehistoric Hunt | · EA older | $17.99 | 678 84% | 20k | $366k (exactly $365,917) | Antiproto Studios |
| | Morels: The Hunt | older | $19.99 | 260 86% | 7.8k | $156k (exactly $155,922) | Abrams Studios |
| | Afterinfection | $8.99 | 463 56% | 14k | $125k (exactly $124,871) | RePatrick21 | |
| | ScrewUp | older | $9.99 | 259 68% | 7.8k | $78k (exactly $77,622) | 199 Cents STUDIO |
 | Russian Village Simulator on Mars | $15.99 | 58 77% | 1.7k | $28k (exactly $27,823) | VD Games, PropilGames | |
 | Arctic Anxiety | · EA older | $2.99 | 285 55% | 8.6k | $26k (exactly $25,565) | Arctic Studio |
 | Twilight Tails | $16.99 | 43 51% | 1.3k | $22k (exactly $21,917) | Prokopchuk Pavlo | |
 | SO BELOW | · EA older | $11.99 | 56 73% | 1.7k | $20k (exactly $20,143) | Eonia Studio |
 | Crowhille - Detective Case Files VR | older | $5.99 | 90 88% | 2.7k | $16k (exactly $16,173) | Saturn VR, NipsApp Gaming Software |
 | Find 100 Ducks and Blast Them...IN SPACE!!! | $7.49 | 31 93% | 930 | $7.0k (exactly $6,966) | Welcome Back Games | |
 | South America Gold Rush | · EA | $9.99 | 9 44% | 270 | $2.7k (exactly $2,697) | Argo Games |
 | Mushroom Hunter World | $7.99 | 8 62% | 240 | $1.9k (exactly $1,918) | Poroshin Develop | |
 | Undefined Survivors -アンディファインド サバイバーズ- | · EA | $29.99 | 2 0% | 60 | $1.8k (exactly $1,799) | Runpath Inc. |
 | Ghost Hunters | $14.99 | 3 33% | 90 | $1.3k (exactly $1,349) | 8floor ltd | |
 | Money Theft 2: Heist | $3.99 | 10 70% | 300 | $1.2k (exactly $1,197) | Tero Lunkka, Valkeala Software | |
 | Hunter's Journey: Nightmare Hunting Collector's Edition | $15.99 | 1 100% | 30 | $480 (exactly $480) | Do Games Limited |
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.