Games › Hunting › Hunting + Life Sim
Should I ship a Life Sim Hunting game?
Hunting + Life Sim
Of 20 developers who shipped a Life Sim Hunting 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.. 39 more are announced, ×20 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.
Only 2 developers shipped this in the last year, under the 5 a verdict needs; over 2 years the middle one made $13k against a market of $630. 39 games are announced.
| Bottom 30% | $2.1k (exactly $2,098) |
|---|---|
| Median | $13k (exactly $13,001) |
| Top 25% | $130k (exactly $129,698) |
| Top 5% | $10M (exactly $10,356,447) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 20 |
| Released games | 46 |
| Announced | 39 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $14.99 |
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 90% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 4%, 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
- Hunting, Life Sim; 7 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Simulation, Exploration, Immersive Sim
- Price point
- $14.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Realistic, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $14.99.
The top 10 games average 93% positive over 15,602 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $2.1k. 6 in 10 of the 20 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 39 games are announced against 2 developers who shipped in the last year, ×20 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
WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition 2025 · $10M 
WolfQuest: Classic 2025 · $1.3M 
Russian Village Simulator 2023 · $800k 
Card Survival: Fantasy Forest 2025 · EA · $749k 
Arctic Motel Simulator 2025 · $251k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition | $29.99 | 11,511 97% | 345k | $10M (exactly $10,356,447) | eduweb | |
| | WolfQuest: Classic | $29.99 | 1,401 90% | 42k | $1.3M (exactly $1,260,480) | eduweb | |
| | Russian Village Simulator | older | $29.99 | 889 84% | 27k | $800k (exactly $799,833) | VD Games, PropilGames |
| | Card Survival: Fantasy Forest | · EA | $21.99 | 1,135 76% | 34k | $749k (exactly $748,760) | WinterSpring Games |
| | Arctic Motel Simulator | $17.99 | 465 88% | 14k | $251k (exactly $250,960) | One Slice of Pizza Games | |
 | Cattle Country | $18.99 | 335 86% | 10k | $191k (exactly $190,849) | Castle Pixel, LLC. | |
 | Virtual Hunter | $24.99 | 173 71% | 5.2k | $130k (exactly $129,698) | Korpi Games Oy | |
 | Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar | $14.99 | 263 87% | 7.9k | $118k (exactly $118,271) | Venugopalan Sreedharan | |
 | The WILDS | · EA older | $4.99 | 584 75% | 18k | $87k (exactly $87,425) | Gluten Free Games |
 | ScrewUp | older | $9.99 | 259 68% | 7.8k | $78k (exactly $77,622) | 199 Cents STUDIO |
 | Chill Town | $9.99 | 200 68% | 6.0k | $60k (exactly $59,940) | Low-Hi Tech | |
 | Russian Village Simulator 2 | $15.99 | 61 70% | 1.8k | $29k (exactly $29,262) | VD Games, PropilGames | |
 | Russian Village Simulator on Mars | $15.99 | 58 77% | 1.7k | $28k (exactly $27,823) | VD Games, PropilGames |
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.