Do I ship it?

Games › Vehicular Combat › Vehicular Combat + Shoot 'Em Up

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Shoot 'Em Up Vehicular Combat game?

Vehicular Combat + Shoot 'Em Up

Of 59 developers who shipped a Shoot 'Em Up Vehicular Combat 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.. 90 more are announced, ×2.6 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $270 in the last 2 years and $480 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 6 / 10 build. 34 developers shipped in the last year and 90 games are announced.

Deciding numbers: median 0.4 times the market baseline, revenue up 20% on the market, 90 announced, ×2.6 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Vehicular Combat + Shoot 'Em Up
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 59
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $300 → $1.6k → $1.3k → $479 → $358 → $3.5k → $239 (still earning) → $240 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Vehicular Combat + Shoot 'Em Up: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 59
Bottom 30% $89 (exactly $89)
Median $269 (exactly $269)
Top 25% $2.7k (exactly $2,698)
Top 5% $113k (exactly $112,875)
Developers, 2 yr 59
Released games 192
Announced 90
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $4.99

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 20% on the market, supply 35% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 11%, 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.

Vehicular Combat
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Shoot 'Em Up
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
Vehicular Combat, Shoot 'Em Up; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Shooter, Arcade
Price point
$4.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
Art
4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics, Top-Down
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.

The top 10 games average 83% positive over 2,541 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $89, median $270, 1 in 4 over $2.6k, 1 in 20 over $110k.

3 in 10 developers made under $89. Nearly all of the 25 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 90 games are announced against 34 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.6 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

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

  1. + Looter ShooterFair11 devs · median $15k · 14 announced
  2. + BuildingPoor odds14 devs · median $303k · 40 announced
  3. + Online Co-OpPoor odds29 devs · median $62k · 75 announced
  4. + Co-opPoor odds38 devs · median $32k · 101 announced
  5. + HistoricalPoor odds16 devs · median $32k · 36 announced
  6. + CraftingPoor odds14 devs · median $20k · 43 announced
  7. + Open WorldPoor odds45 devs · median $15k · 97 announced
  8. + ManagementPoor odds21 devs · median $13k · 36 announced
  9. + SandboxPoor odds25 devs · median $10k · 70 announced
  10. + Real Time TacticsPoor odds20 devs · median $9.6k · 50 announced
  11. + ModernPoor odds18 devs · median $8.6k · 25 announced
  12. + MechsPoor odds24 devs · median $4.8k · 52 announced

All 98 pairs on the Vehicular Combat page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Badlands Crew - Drive, Command, Conquer 2025 · $641k Insect Swarm 2024 · $522k Multi Turret Academy 2024 · EA · $480k Renegade Ops 2011 · $452k Project Gunship 2022 · EA · $376k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Badlands Crew - Drive, Command, Conquer $18.99 1,126 78% 34k $641k (exactly $641,482) Runner Duck
Insect Swarm older $6.99 2,491 84% 75k $522k (exactly $522,363) Parallel Portal
Multi Turret Academy · EA older $8.99 1,778 95% 53k $480k (exactly $479,527) Yulia Games
Renegade Ops older $15.00 1,005 85% 30k $452k (exactly $452,250) Avalanche Studios
Project Gunship · EA older $14.99 836 75% 25k $376k (exactly $375,949) Sklorite Studios LLC
Disassembly 3D older $29.99 309 81% 9.3k $278k (exactly $278,007) Khor Chin Heong
Mech Havoc · EA $9.99 813 96% 24k $244k (exactly $243,656) Mid Development
Titan Attacks! older $9.99 654 92% 20k $196k (exactly $196,004) Puppygames
Wee Tanks! older $9.99 548 90% 16k $164k (exactly $164,236) Studio Kit
Wild Blue Skies $14.99 251 58% 7.5k $113k (exactly $112,875) Chuhai Labs, VITEI BACKROOM Inc.
Gunboat God $12.99 66 90% 2.0k $26k (exactly $25,720) Janson RAD
SCAD · EA $7.99 86 76% 2.6k $21k (exactly $20,614) NAISU
FUR Squadron Phoenix $19.99 32 78% 960 $19k (exactly $19,190) Raptor Claw
SharedScreen Wagons 2 $9.99 52 98% 1.6k $16k (exactly $15,584) Anti-Ded GameDev
Space Dragons $9.99 36 83% 1.1k $11k (exactly $10,789) TEAM Black Hat Robot
Chaos on Wheels $9.99 34 67% 1.0k $10k (exactly $10,190) Acodeon Development
Threads of War $4.99 45 97% 1.4k $6.7k (exactly $6,736) KoS

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