Games › RPG › RPG + Time Travel
Should I ship a Time-Travel RPG?
RPG + Time Travel
Of 43 developers who shipped a Time-Travel RPG 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.. 105 more are announced, ×4.6 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $4.7k, ×7.5 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $360; 1 in 20 cleared $920k, ×1481 the market median. Revenue is down 50% on the market; 105 games are announced against 23 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $359 (exactly $359) |
|---|---|
| Median | $4.7k (exactly $4,716) |
| Top 25% | $56k (exactly $56,437) |
| Top 5% | $930k (exactly $929,824) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 43 |
| Released games | 165 |
| Announced | 105 |
| Effort | 6 / 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 down 50% on the market, supply 10% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 16%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- RPG
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Time Travel
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- RPG; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Turn-Based Combat, JRPG
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $49.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, 3D, Anime
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $49.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 87% positive over 23,585 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $360. 7 in 10 of the 25 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 105 games are announced against 23 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.6 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
RPG with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + IdlerFair
- + Boss RushFair
- + SportsFair
- + Combat RacingFair
- + Split ScreenFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + SamuraiPoor odds
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + 4XPoor odds
- + MinigamesPoor odds
- + Real-Time with PausePoor odds
Comparable games
Last Epoch 2024 · $112M 
BioShock Infinite 2013 · $99M 
Digimon Story Time Stranger 2025 · $33M 
ASTLIBRA Revision 2022 · $23M 
The Forgotten City 2021 · $8.4M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Last Epoch | older | $34.99 | 106,364 76% | 3.2M | $112M (exactly $111,650,291) | Eleventh Hour Games |
| | BioShock Infinite | older | $29.99 | 109,718 93% | 3.3M | $99M (exactly $98,713,285) | Irrational Games, Virtual Programming (… (Irrational Games, Virtual Programming (Linux)) |
| | Digimon Story Time Stranger | $69.99 | 15,845 89% | 475k | $33M (exactly $33,269,746) | Media.Vision Inc. | |
| | ASTLIBRA Revision | older | $24.99 | 30,262 95% | 908k | $23M (exactly $22,687,421) | KEIZO |
| | The Forgotten City | older | $24.99 | 11,159 96% | 335k | $8.4M (exactly $8,365,902) | Modern Storyteller |
 | CHRONO TRIGGER® | older | $14.99 | 12,149 88% | 364k | $5.5M (exactly $5,463,405) | Square Enix |
 | In Stars And Time | older | $19.99 | 7,835 97% | 235k | $4.7M (exactly $4,698,650) | insertdisc5 |
 | DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined | $59.99 | 2,138 88% | 64k | $3.8M (exactly $3,847,759) | Square Enix, HEXADRIVE Inc. | |
 | GNOSIA | older | $24.99 | 4,855 93% | 146k | $3.6M (exactly $3,639,794) | Petit Depotto |
 | Depersonalization | older | $19.99 | 6,041 92% | 181k | $3.6M (exactly $3,622,788) | MeowNature |
 | Multiverse Loot Hunter | $11.99 | 2,585 80% | 78k | $930k (exactly $929,824) | 游戏养家工作室 | |
 | Ascend to ZERO | $11.99 | 867 82% | 26k | $312k (exactly $311,860) | Flyway Games, Inc. | |
 | Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate | $49.99 | 149 62% | 4.5k | $223k (exactly $223,455) | Mighty Eyes | |
 | Villages & Dungeons | $6.99 | 1,036 91% | 31k | $217k (exactly $217,249) | CaCaFrog Studio | |
 | DragonLoop | $8.99 | 567 91% | 17k | $153k (exactly $152,920) | 沙因, 小阮 | |
 | Amelie falls over and over again ~ An endless week in Magic Academy | $13.99 | 257 80% | 7.7k | $108k (exactly $107,863) | AVANTGARDE | |
 | Ship of Heroes | $29.99 | 91 27% | 2.7k | $82k (exactly $81,873) | Heroic Games Corporation | |
 | Another Eden Begins | $39.99 | 50 72% | 1.5k | $60k (exactly $59,985) | WRIGHT FLYER STUDIOS |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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