Do I ship it?

Games › Loot › Loot + Procedural Generation

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Loot Procedural Generation game?

Loot + Procedural Generation

Of 187 developers who shipped a Loot Procedural Generation 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.. 359 more are announced, ×2.9 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $2.7k, ×4.3 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $810; 1 in 20 cleared $790k, ×1262 the market median. Revenue is flat on the market; 359 games are announced against 123 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 4.3 times the market baseline, revenue flat on the market, 359 announced, ×2.9 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Loot + Procedural Generation
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 187
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $22k → $2.2k → $26k → $8.5k → $2.1k → $3.1k → $3.9k (still earning) → $1.5k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Loot + Procedural Generation: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 187
Bottom 30% $807 (exactly $807)
Median $2.7k (exactly $2,726)
Top 25% $40k (exactly $39,560)
Top 5% $792k (exactly $792,433)
Developers, 2 yr 187
Released games 449
Announced 359
Effort 5 / 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 flat on the market, supply 90% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 9%, excluded from money figures.

See every window in the explorer →

Plate 2 · systems and tooling

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
Procedural Generation
effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
Systems
Loot, Procedural Generation; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Exploration, RPG
Price point
$8.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
Art
4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with First-Person
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.

The top 10 games average 88% positive over 51,466 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $810, median $2.7k, 1 in 4 over $39k, 1 in 20 over $790k.

3 in 10 developers made under $810. 7 in 10 of the 72 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 359 games are announced against 123 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.9 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Loot with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Artificial IntelligenceStrong odds28 devs · median $19k · 22 announced
  2. + Local Co-OpStrong odds22 devs · median $7.3k · 21 announced
  3. + SteampunkStrong odds7 devs · median $2.2k · 10 announced
  4. + CapitalismFair36 devs · median $14k · 52 announced
  5. + Turn-Based StrategyFair86 devs · median $6.3k · 97 announced
  6. + JRPGFair34 devs · median $5.5k · 41 announced
  7. + EconomyFair74 devs · median $4.6k · 114 announced
  8. + IdlerFair181 devs · median $4.5k · 256 announced
  9. + CatsFair17 devs · median $3.4k · 24 announced
  10. + IncrementalFair145 devs · median $2.9k · 236 announced
  11. + Creature CollectorFair51 devs · median $2.9k · 67 announced
  12. + CollectathonFair90 devs · median $1.9k · 95 announced

All 159 pairs on the Loot page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Deep Rock Galactic 2020 · $273M Neon Abyss 2020 · $19M Elin 2024 · EA · $5.0M Death Must Die 2023 · EA · $4.4M Mortal Sin 2025 · $4.2M
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Deep Rock Galactic older $29.99 303,142 97% 9.1M $273M (exactly $272,736,857) Ghost Ship Games
Neon Abyss older $31.49 19,709 86% 591k $19M (exactly $18,619,092) Veewo Games
Elin · EA $19.99 8,406 93% 252k $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) Lafrontier
Death Must Die · EA older $6.99 20,937 90% 628k $4.4M (exactly $4,390,489) Realm Archive
Mortal Sin $24.99 5,583 94% 167k $4.2M (exactly $4,185,575) Nikola Todorovic
Chronicon older $13.99 8,822 94% 265k $3.7M (exactly $3,702,593) Subworld
Inkbound older $29.99 3,592 86% 108k $3.2M (exactly $3,231,722) Shiny Shoe
A Game About Digging A Hole™ $4.99 18,785 89% 564k $2.8M (exactly $2,812,114) DoubleBee
Pixel Piracy older $14.99 5,713 65% 171k $2.6M (exactly $2,569,136) Vitali Kirpu
Killsquad older $29.99 2,839 71% 85k $2.6M (exactly $2,554,248) Novarama
Burglin' Gnomes $9.99 4,635 83% 139k $1.4M (exactly $1,389,110) Fobri
Salt 2: Shores of Gold $19.99 2,182 85% 65k $1.3M (exactly $1,308,545) Lavaboots Studios
Neon Abyss 2 · EA $19.99 1,968 68% 59k $1.2M (exactly $1,180,210) Veewo Games
Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot $14.99 2,588 82% 78k $1.2M (exactly $1,163,824) Hamma Studios
Murky Divers $8.99 3,981 87% 119k $1.1M (exactly $1,073,676) Embers
Lucky Tower Ultimate $14.99 2,281 94% 68k $1.0M (exactly $1,025,766) Studio Seufz
Towerborne $24.99 1,057 69% 32k $792k (exactly $792,433) Stoic

Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.