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Should I ship a Loot Mystery Dungeon?
Loot + Mystery Dungeon
Of 37 developers who shipped a Loot Mystery Dungeon 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.. 49 more are announced, ×2.1 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $810, ×1.3 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $740k, ×1194 the market median. Revenue is up 100% on the market; 49 games are announced against 23 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $180 (exactly $180) |
|---|---|
| Median | $809 (exactly $809) |
| Top 25% | $4.5k (exactly $4,491) |
| Top 5% | $750k (exactly $749,850) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 37 |
| Released games | 83 |
| Announced | 49 |
| Effort | 5 / 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 100% on the market, supply 65% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 14%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Loot
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
- Mystery Dungeon
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
- Systems
- Loot, Mystery Dungeon; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Character Customization, Dungeon Crawler, RPG
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 88% positive over 12,642 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 7 in 10 of the 15 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 49 games are announced against 23 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.1 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Loot with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Artificial IntelligenceStrong odds
- + Local Co-OpStrong odds
- + SteampunkStrong odds
- + CapitalismFair
- + Turn-Based StrategyFair
- + JRPGFair
- + EconomyFair
- + IdlerFair
- + CatsFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + Creature CollectorFair
- + CollectathonFair
Comparable games
Elin 2024 · EA · $5.0M 
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension 2024 · $750k 
Shattered Pixel Dungeon 2022 · $631k 
Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle 2026 · $541k 
Tangledeep 2018 · $483k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
| | FANTASIAN Neo Dimension | $49.99 | 500 76% | 15k | $750k (exactly $749,850) | Mistwalker Corporation | |
| | Shattered Pixel Dungeon | older | $9.99 | 2,106 95% | 63k | $631k (exactly $631,168) | Shattered Pixel |
| | Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle | $18.99 | 950 71% | 29k | $541k (exactly $541,215) | KTMG LLC. | |
| | Tangledeep | older | $14.99 | 1,075 82% | 32k | $483k (exactly $483,428) | Impact Gameworks |
 | Dungeon Drafters | older | $24.99 | 563 76% | 17k | $422k (exactly $422,081) | Manalith Studios |
 | Skull Horde | $12.99 | 1,083 81% | 32k | $422k (exactly $422,045) | 8BitSkull | |
 | Home and Dungeon | older | $16.99 | 333 84% | 10k | $170k (exactly $169,730) | Manufacture |
 | PIT OF GOBLIN | · EA | $5.99 | 915 84% | 27k | $164k (exactly $164,426) | Friendly Foe |
 | Embers Adrift | $19.99 | 240 69% | 7.2k | $144k (exactly $143,928) | Stormhaven Studios | |
 | Meowgic | $7.99 | 462 79% | 14k | $111k (exactly $110,741) | Lazy Turtle Games | |
 | Feywood Wanderers | $14.99 | 37 86% | 1.1k | $17k (exactly $16,639) | Vicente Miranda | |
 | Mech Shuffle | $9.99 | 19 94% | 570 | $5.7k (exactly $5,694) | PillBugGames | |
 | Everfall: Idle Dungeon RPG | $4.99 | 30 33% | 900 | $4.5k (exactly $4,491) | GameDevJoey |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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