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Should I ship a Local Co-Op Top-Down Shooter?
Local Co-Op + Top-Down Shooter
Of 80 developers who shipped a Local Co-Op Top-Down 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.. 104 more are announced, ×2.4 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $600, ×1.3 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $240; 1 in 20 cleared $120k, ×255 the market median. Revenue is down 75% on the market; 104 games are announced against 43 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $239 (exactly $239) |
|---|---|
| Median | $599 (exactly $599) |
| Top 25% | $6.3k (exactly $6,294) |
| Top 5% | $121k (exactly $120,969) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 80 |
| Released games | 362 |
| Announced | 104 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $6.99 |
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 75% on the market, supply 15% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 7%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Local Co-Op
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
- Top-Down Shooter
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Local Co-Op, Top-Down Shooter; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Co-op, Bullet Hell
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 7 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Top-Down
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 87% positive over 9,626 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $240. 9 in 10 of the 45 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 104 games are announced against 43 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.4 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Local Co-Op with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + LootStrong odds
- + LGBTQ+Fair
- + Artificial IntelligenceFair
- + TriviaFair
- + Action RPGFair
- + ModernFair
- + Dark FantasyFair
- + Board GameFair
- + Dungeon CrawlerFair
- + MedievalFair
- + Immersive SimFair
- + Point & ClickFair
Comparable games
The Ascent 2021 · $17M 
Brotato 2023 · $17M 
HELLDIVERS™ Dive Harder Edition 2015 · $15M 
Darksiders Genesis 2019 · $9.3M 
Nuclear Throne 2015 · $5.4M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Ascent | older | $29.99 | 19,235 74% | 577k | $17M (exactly $17,305,730) | Neon Giant |
| | Brotato | older | $4.99 | 111,407 95% | 3.3M | $17M (exactly $16,677,628) | Blobfish |
| | HELLDIVERS™ Dive Harder Edition | older | $19.99 | 25,663 90% | 770k | $15M (exactly $15,390,101) | Arrowhead Game Studios |
| | Darksiders Genesis | older | $29.99 | 10,379 82% | 311k | $9.3M (exactly $9,337,986) | Airship Syndicate |
| | Nuclear Throne | older | $11.99 | 15,047 96% | 451k | $5.4M (exactly $5,412,406) | Vlambeer |
 | How to Survive 2 | older | $14.99 | 8,641 69% | 259k | $3.9M (exactly $3,885,858) | Eko Software |
 | Ship of Fools | older | $21.99 | 5,040 82% | 151k | $3.3M (exactly $3,324,888) | Fika Productions |
 | Nine Parchments | older | $19.99 | 4,123 77% | 124k | $2.5M (exactly $2,472,563) | Frozenbyte |
 | X-Morph: Defense | older | $19.99 | 3,272 90% | 98k | $2.0M (exactly $1,962,218) | EXOR Studios |
 | Pathogenic | $9.99 | 4,145 92% | 124k | $1.2M (exactly $1,242,256) | Aberrant Labs | |
 | Greedland | $12.99 | 2,919 83% | 88k | $1.1M (exactly $1,137,534) | VaMP He | |
 | Noobs Are Coming | $7.99 | 1,580 82% | 47k | $379k (exactly $378,726) | Overboy | |
 | Shape Shifter: Formations | $14.99 | 269 91% | 8.1k | $121k (exactly $120,969) | Castec Studios | |
 | Apocalypse Express | $9.99 | 262 81% | 7.9k | $79k (exactly $78,521) | Llamaware Studios | |
 | Truxton Extreme | $24.99 | 93 95% | 2.8k | $70k (exactly $69,722) | Tatsujin | |
 | BattleCap | $11.99 | 159 96% | 4.8k | $57k (exactly $57,192) | MechAlmond Productions | |
 | Asterogues | $14.99 | 83 90% | 2.5k | $37k (exactly $37,325) | pipotchi600 | |
 | Blazing Trail | $12.99 | 63 85% | 1.9k | $25k (exactly $24,551) | Gamenergy studio | |
 | Ammo and Oxygen | $14.99 | 53 64% | 1.6k | $24k (exactly $23,834) | Juvty Worlds |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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