Should I ship a Mining game?
Mining
Of 478 developers who shipped a Mining 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.. 796 more are announced, ×2.4 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.4k, ×5.0 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $600; 1 in 20 cleared $490k, ×1045 the market median. Revenue is up 65% on the market; 796 games are announced against 337 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $598 (exactly $598) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.4k (exactly $2,398) |
| Top 25% | $26k (exactly $25,720) |
| Top 5% | $497k (exactly $496,552) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 478 |
| Released games | 995 |
| Announced | 796 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| 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 65% on the market, supply 130% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 10%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Mining
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Mining
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $15.99 or above
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $15.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 84% positive over 101,188 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $600. 7 in 10 of the 169 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 796 games are announced against 337 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.4 per shipper.
All pairs with Mining
- Tactical + Mining Poor odds $2.7k
- Combat + Mining Poor odds $2.6k
- Mining + Mystery Dungeon Poor odds $2.2k
- Adventure + Mining Poor odds $2.2k
- Mining + Inventory Management Poor odds $2.1k
- Space Sim + Mining Poor odds $1.9k
- Choices Matter + Mining Poor odds $1.9k
- Fishing + Mining Poor odds $1.8k
- Action + Mining Poor odds $1.8k
- Mining + Hidden Object Poor odds $1.8k
- Creature Collector + Mining Poor odds $1.8k
- Mining + Cooking Poor odds $1.7k
- Dungeon Crawler + Mining Poor odds $1.3k
- Mining + Puzzle Poor odds $899
- Shooter + Mining Poor odds $898
- Mining + Bullet Hell Poor odds $898
- Mining + Platformer Poor odds $802
- Mining + Logic Poor odds $748
- Action-Adventure + Mining Poor odds $718
- Action RPG + Mining Poor odds $408
- Mining + Top-Down Shooter Poor odds $390
- PvP + Mining Dead $6.0k
- Mining + Puzzle Platformer Dead $6.0k
- Hunting + Mining Dead $2.8k
- Mining + Score Attack Dead $449
Comparable games
ICARUS 2021 · $59M 
My Time at Portia 2019 · $31M 
My Time at Sandrock 2023 · $29M 
Coral Island 2023 · $20M 
Sun Haven 2023 · $17M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ICARUS | older | $34.99 | 55,849 75% | 1.7M | $59M (exactly $58,624,695) | RocketWerkz |
| | My Time at Portia | older | $29.99 | 34,844 91% | 1.0M | $31M (exactly $31,349,147) | Pathea Games |
| | My Time at Sandrock | older | $39.99 | 24,110 88% | 723k | $29M (exactly $28,924,767) | Pathea Games |
| | Coral Island | older | $29.99 | 21,828 89% | 655k | $20M (exactly $19,638,652) | Stairway Games |
| | Sun Haven | older | $24.99 | 22,069 79% | 662k | $17M (exactly $16,545,129) | Pixel Sprout Studios |
 | Fields of Mistria | $13.99 | 31,918 96% | 958k | $13M (exactly $13,395,985) | NPC Studio | |
 | Hydroneer | older | $14.99 | 27,131 85% | 814k | $12M (exactly $12,200,811) | Foulball Hangover |
 | Captain of Industry | · EA older | $34.99 | 11,027 90% | 331k | $12M (exactly $11,575,042) | MaFi Games |
 | Gold Mining Simulator | older | $19.99 | 15,132 72% | 454k | $9.1M (exactly $9,074,660) | Code Horizon |
 | Stationeers | · EA older | $34.99 | 8,597 88% | 258k | $9.0M (exactly $9,024,271) | RocketWerkz |
 | Luma Island | $19.99 | 11,204 84% | 336k | $6.7M (exactly $6,719,039) | Feel Free Games | |
 | Space Engineers 2 | · EA | $29.99 | 5,095 74% | 153k | $4.6M (exactly $4,583,972) | Keen Software House |
 | The Quinfall | $9.99 | 12,073 50% | 362k | $3.6M (exactly $3,618,278) | Vawraek Technology Inc. | |
 | SpaceBourne 2 | $19.99 | 4,951 75% | 149k | $3.0M (exactly $2,969,115) | Burak Dabak | |
 | A Game About Digging A Hole™ | $4.99 | 18,785 89% | 564k | $2.8M (exactly $2,812,114) | DoubleBee | |
 | Occupy Mars: The Game | $29.99 | 2,714 68% | 81k | $2.4M (exactly $2,441,786) | ▲ Pyramid Games | |
 | MineMogul | · EA | $14.99 | 4,330 96% | 130k | $1.9M (exactly $1,947,201) | NoodleForge (Gvarados & Diomonder) |
 | Starminer | · EA | $29.99 | 1,818 72% | 55k | $1.6M (exactly $1,635,655) | CoolAndGoodGames |
 | Keep on Mining! | $4.99 | 8,300 93% | 249k | $1.2M (exactly $1,242,510) | EagleEye Games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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