Games › Trading › Trading + Puzzle
Should I ship a Trading Puzzle game?
Trading + Puzzle
Only 15 developers shipped a Trading Puzzle game in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, BidKing, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 34 more are announced, ×3.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $540, ×1.1 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $120; 1 in 20 cleared $1.9M, ×4199 the market median. Revenue is down 90% on the market; 34 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $119 (exactly $119) |
|---|---|
| Median | $538 (exactly $538) |
| Top 25% | $6.7k (exactly $6,746) |
| Top 5% | $2.0M (exactly $1,994,749) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 15 |
| Released games | 49 |
| Announced | 34 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $3.99 |
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 90% on the market, supply 50% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 20%, 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
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Trading, Puzzle
- Price point
- $3.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 10 games average 34% positive over 22,580 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $120. 8 in 10 of the 8 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 34 games are announced against 9 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.8 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Trading with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + MiningFair
- + Score AttackFair
- + MMORPGPoor odds
- + Character CustomizationPoor odds
- + Online Co-OpPoor odds
- + Co-opPoor odds
- + FlightPoor odds
- + SportsPoor odds
- + CollectathonPoor odds
- + PhysicsPoor odds
- + DrivingPoor odds
- + LootPoor odds
Comparable games
BidKing 2026 · $2.0M 
Slipways 2021 · $1.1M 
No Umbrellas Allowed 2021 · $836k 
Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator 2021 · $774k 
Wolf of Stock Street 2021 · $289k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | BidKing | $2.99 | 22,238 33% | 667k | $2.0M (exactly $1,994,749) | MindSurge Network & Games | |
| | Slipways | older | $16.99 | 2,233 93% | 67k | $1.1M (exactly $1,138,160) | Beetlewing |
| | No Umbrellas Allowed | older | $19.99 | 1,394 80% | 42k | $836k (exactly $835,982) | Hoochoo Game Studios |
| | Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator | older | $24.99 | 1,033 77% | 31k | $774k (exactly $774,440) | Broken Arms Games |
| | Wolf of Stock Street | older | $10.99 | 878 77% | 26k | $289k (exactly $289,477) | 樹懶叫工作室, sloth gamer |
 | Time on Frog Island | older | $19.99 | 284 71% | 8.5k | $170k (exactly $170,315) | Half Past Yellow |
 | One More Island | older | $19.99 | 195 68% | 5.9k | $117k (exactly $116,941) | Berg Games |
 | Akin | older | $4.99 | 498 86% | 15k | $75k (exactly $74,551) | ThinkOfGames |
 | Device Doctor Simulator 2024 | $9.99 | 186 62% | 5.6k | $56k (exactly $55,744) | Tenacity Games | |
 | Tiny Garden | $12.99 | 108 85% | 3.2k | $42k (exactly $42,088) | Ao Norte | |
 | All You Need is Help | $14.99 | 15 60% | 450 | $6.7k (exactly $6,746) | Q-Games Ltd. | |
 | Trailmarks | $8.99 | 12 91% | 360 | $3.2k (exactly $3,236) | Trailmarks HQ | |
 | Dao's Cover | · EA | $17.99 | 3 66% | 90 | $1.6k (exactly $1,619) | Beijing Baidong Technology |
 | The First Mine | $4.99 | 8 87% | 240 | $1.2k (exactly $1,198) | Stefan Böttcher | |
 | A Good Deed On Harris Avenue | $2.99 | 6 83% | 180 | $538 (exactly $538) | Daniel H. May | |
 | EPICross | $3.99 | 3 66% | 90 | $359 (exactly $359) | One Room Studio | |
 | Signal Drift | $9.99 | 1 100% | 30 | $300 (exactly $300) | Alcove Research LLC |
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.