Games › Survival › Survival + Twin Stick Shooter
Should I ship a Twin Stick Shooter Survival game?
Survival + Twin Stick Shooter
Of 73 developers who shipped a Twin Stick Shooter Survival 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.. 80 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $960, ×1.5 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $140k, ×232 the market median. Revenue is down 60% on the market; 80 games are announced against 46 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $180 (exactly $180) |
|---|---|
| Median | $958 (exactly $958) |
| Top 25% | $3.2k (exactly $3,224) |
| Top 5% | $146k (exactly $145,954) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 73 |
| Released games | 198 |
| Announced | 80 |
| 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 down 60% on the market, supply 70% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 9%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Survival
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Twin Stick Shooter
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Survival, Twin Stick Shooter; 7 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Action Roguelike, Roguelite
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $9.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics, Top-Down
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $9.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 77% positive over 3,500 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 8 in 10 of the 29 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 80 games are announced against 46 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Survival with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Social DeductionFair
- + Word GameFair
- + CatsFair
- + CollectathonFair
- + IdlerFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + DogsFair
- + Martial ArtsLong shot
- + Boomer ShooterLong shot
- + DiplomacyPoor odds
Comparable games
HELLDIVERS™ Dive Harder Edition 2015 · $15M 
Hatred 2015 · $4.6M 
Atomicrops 2020 · $2.3M 
Crimsonland 2014 · $884k 
West of Dead 2020 · $773k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | HELLDIVERS™ Dive Harder Edition | older | $19.99 | 25,663 90% | 770k | $15M (exactly $15,390,101) | Arrowhead Game Studios |
| | Hatred | older | $5.99 | 25,770 84% | 773k | $4.6M (exactly $4,630,869) | Destructive Creations |
| | Atomicrops | older | $14.99 | 5,134 93% | 154k | $2.3M (exactly $2,308,760) | Bird Bath Games |
| | Crimsonland | older | $13.99 | 2,107 94% | 63k | $884k (exactly $884,308) | 10tons Ltd |
| | West of Dead | older | $19.99 | 1,289 76% | 39k | $773k (exactly $773,013) | Upstream Arcade |
 | Decision: Red Daze | older | $19.99 | 855 74% | 26k | $513k (exactly $512,743) | FlyAnvil |
 | Section 13 | $19.99 | 770 70% | 23k | $462k (exactly $461,769) | Ocean Drive Studio, Inc. | |
 | CPU Invaders | older | $29.99 | 496 86% | 15k | $446k (exactly $446,251) | Microblast Games |
 | Hell is Others | older | $14.99 | 991 73% | 30k | $446k (exactly $445,653) | Strelka Games, Yonder |
 | Yet Another Zombie Defense HD | older | $3.99 | 2,561 84% | 77k | $307k (exactly $306,552) | Awesome Games Studio |
 | Crafty Survivors | $11.99 | 712 83% | 21k | $256k (exactly $256,106) | Flannel Bear Games | |
 | The Ember Guardian | $19.99 | 278 82% | 8.3k | $167k (exactly $166,717) | Ratbit Games | |
 | Entropy Survivors | $9.99 | 487 80% | 15k | $146k (exactly $145,954) | Moving Pieces Interactive | |
 | The Horde Wants You Dead | $9.99 | 270 64% | 8.1k | $81k (exactly $80,919) | Bellyflop Games | |
 | Pinball Storm: Lokanta | $5.99 | 434 70% | 13k | $78k (exactly $77,990) | Aastral Dynamics | |
 | Raining Blood: Hellfire | $7.99 | 198 89% | 5.9k | $47k (exactly $47,461) | TechBooh | |
 | Where the forest ends | $9.99 | 132 68% | 4.0k | $40k (exactly $39,560) | MonkeyBassGames | |
 | Kritter: Defend Together | $9.99 | 109 86% | 3.3k | $33k (exactly $32,667) | LJF Games | |
 | Arcadium - Space Odyssey | $7.99 | 110 93% | 3.3k | $26k (exactly $26,367) | Luciano Bercini |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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