Do I ship it?

Games › PvE › PvE + Puzzle Platformer

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a PvE Puzzle Platformer?

PvE + Puzzle Platformer

Of 76 developers who shipped a PvE Puzzle Platformer 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.. 141 more are announced, ×2.9 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $330 in the last 2 years and $330 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 6 / 10 build. 48 developers shipped in the last year and 141 games are announced.

Deciding numbers: median 0.5 times the market baseline, revenue up 670% on the market, 141 announced, ×2.9 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
PvE + Puzzle Platformer
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 76
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $330 → $449 → $269 → $359 → $180 → $449 → $1.0k (still earning) → $0 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for PvE + Puzzle Platformer: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 76
Bottom 30% $0 (exactly $0)
Median $330 (exactly $330)
Top 25% $1.9k (exactly $1,888)
Top 5% $17k (exactly $17,383)
Developers, 2 yr 76
Released games 206
Announced 141
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Low
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 670% on the market, supply 70% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 20%, 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 low: the lowest rating among its tags.

PvE
effort 6 / 10 · low · online co-op against AI still needs the whole netcode stack
Puzzle Platformer
effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
Systems
PvE, Puzzle Platformer; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Puzzle, Adventure, Action
Price point
$5.99 typical · top 25% priced $9.99 or above
Art
3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Colorful, Cute
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $9.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.

The top 10 games average 86% positive over 982 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $50, median $330, 1 in 4 over $1.8k, 1 in 20 over $17k.

3 in 10 developers made under $50. 9 in 10 of the 39 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 141 games are announced against 48 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.9 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

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

  1. + Dating SimFair17 devs · median $2.4k · 23 announced
  2. + IdlerFair161 devs · median $1.0k · 229 announced
  3. + MinigamesFair9 devs · median $899 · 14 announced
  4. + TypingFair23 devs · median $719 · 27 announced
  5. + Extraction ShooterPoor odds44 devs · median $163k · 97 announced
  6. + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds50 devs · median $85k · 120 announced
  7. + HeistPoor odds18 devs · median $30k · 50 announced
  8. + MMORPGPoor odds34 devs · median $25k · 248 announced
  9. + Real-TimePoor odds10 devs · median $20k · 24 announced
  10. + NavalPoor odds21 devs · median $11k · 59 announced
  11. + SpaceshipsPoor odds16 devs · median $6.3k · 20 announced
  12. + MarsPoor odds10 devs · median $6.3k · 13 announced

All 243 pairs on the PvE page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Dungeons of Hinterberg 2024 · $1.7M Train Valley 2 2019 · $1.1M Zup! F 2019 · $463k Super Time Force Ultra 2014 · $304k 7th Sector 2019 · $212k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Dungeons of Hinterberg older $22.99 2,403 93% 72k $1.7M (exactly $1,657,349) Microbird Games
Train Valley 2 older $14.99 2,356 90% 71k $1.1M (exactly $1,059,493) Alexey Davydov, Sergey Dvoynikov, Timof… (Alexey Davydov, Sergey Dvoynikov, Timofey Shargorodskiy, Flazm)
Zup! F older $1.99 7,749 96% 232k $463k (exactly $462,615) Quiet River
Super Time Force Ultra older $14.99 677 90% 20k $304k (exactly $304,447) Capybara Games
7th Sector older $10.99 643 72% 19k $212k (exactly $211,997) Носков Сергей
Zup! 9 older $1.99 1,920 95% 58k $115k (exactly $114,624) Quiet River
OVERPASS™ older $29.99 104 51% 3.1k $94k (exactly $93,569) Zordix Racing
Frog Sqwad 🐸 $7.99 352 72% 11k $84k (exactly $84,374) Panic Stations
Drill Bird $4.99 379 97% 11k $57k (exactly $56,736) Sebastian Larsson, Andrea Harty, Hampus… (Sebastian Larsson, Andrea Harty, Hampus Melin , Isabelle Neuman, Luiza Flores da Cunha)
OUTCLAW $24.99 44 93% 1.3k $33k (exactly $32,987) Moss Monkey
Treasure Hunters: Raid Together $9.99 58 84% 1.7k $17k (exactly $17,383) Biax
Rumbral $12.99 30 76% 900 $12k (exactly $11,691) OSEA Innovations
Slugterra All-Stars $7.99 41 90% 1.2k $9.8k (exactly $9,828) Nightmarket Games
Hyperstacks $19.99 11 90% 330 $6.6k (exactly $6,597) Squirrel Bytes
2 Bows 1 Arrow $6.99 28 100% 840 $5.9k (exactly $5,872) SKL Games
LINK Penguins $5.99 31 87% 930 $5.6k (exactly $5,571) lemorion_1224
Hannah $19.99 8 87% 240 $4.8k (exactly $4,798) Spaceboy

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