Should I ship a Loot JRPG?
JRPG + Loot
Of 34 developers who shipped a Loot JRPG 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.. 41 more are announced.
Verdict: fair, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $5.5k, ×8.8 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $1.5k. Revenue is up 85% on the market; 41 games are announced against 22 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $1.5k (exactly $1,497) |
|---|---|
| Median | $5.5k (exactly $5,539) |
| Top 25% | $24k (exactly $23,503) |
| Top 5% | $750k (exactly $749,850) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 34 |
| Released games | 87 |
| Announced | 41 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $5.99 |
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 85% on the market, supply 70% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 16%, 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
- JRPG, Loot; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry RPG, Dungeon Crawler, Adventure
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $39.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics, Anime
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $39.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 91% positive over 11,772 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $1.5k. 6 in 10 of the 17 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 41 games are announced against 22 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
JRPG with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Mystery DungeonStrong odds
- + NinjaFair
- + RomanceFair
- + Visual NovelFair
- + ManagementFair
- + Souls-likeFair
- + Point & ClickFair
- + RoguelikeFair
- + 2D PlatformerFair
- + Artificial IntelligenceFair
- + Resource ManagementFair
Comparable games
Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition 2021 · $51M 
Nioh: Complete Edition 2017 · $44M 
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin 2021 · $14M 
Elin 2024 · EA · $5.0M 
Battle Chasers: Nightwar 2017 · $5.0M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition | older | $49.99 | 33,892 87% | 1.0M | $51M (exactly $50,827,832) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
| | Nioh: Complete Edition | older | $49.99 | 29,580 78% | 887k | $44M (exactly $44,361,126) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
| | Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin | older | $39.99 | 11,845 82% | 355k | $14M (exactly $14,210,446) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
| | Battle Chasers: Nightwar | older | $29.99 | 5,573 87% | 167k | $5.0M (exactly $5,014,028) | Airship Syndicate |
 | Dragon Cliff | older | $9.99 | 7,679 88% | 230k | $2.3M (exactly $2,301,396) | Meta Interaction |
 | Monster Hunter Stories | older | $29.99 | 1,615 90% | 48k | $1.5M (exactly $1,453,016) | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
 | 再刷一把 PlayAgain | older | $8.99 | 4,416 67% | 132k | $1.2M (exactly $1,190,995) | 滑稽工作室 |
 | FANTASIAN Neo Dimension | $49.99 | 500 76% | 15k | $750k (exactly $749,850) | Mistwalker Corporation | |
 | The Use of Life | $19.99 | 764 90% | 23k | $458k (exactly $458,171) | だらねこげーむず/Daraneko Games | |
 | Wayblazer Dämmerung | $39.99 | 244 65% | 7.3k | $293k (exactly $292,727) | Eushully | |
 | Legends of Dragaea: Idle Dungeons | $9.99 | 976 86% | 29k | $293k (exactly $292,507) | Blast Programming | |
 | Cladun X3 | $39.99 | 83 90% | 2.5k | $100k (exactly $99,575) | Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. | |
 | Scarmonde | $13.99 | 215 98% | 6.5k | $90k (exactly $90,236) | Ephiam | |
 | DUNGEON RAZE | $2.99 | 458 85% | 14k | $41k (exactly $41,083) | KOTARO YOSHIDA | |
 | Dungeon with Girl | $13.99 | 56 83% | 1.7k | $24k (exactly $23,503) | tadatada stupid | |
 | Gods Wars : infinity Epic | $9.99 | 70 77% | 2.1k | $21k (exactly $20,979) | YCGame |
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.