Do I ship it?

Games › Mechanics › Mining

Specimen · observed

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.

Deciding numbers: median 5.0 times the market baseline, revenue up 65% on the market, 796 announced, ×2.4 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Mining
Fig. 1 · this niche among 355
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 478
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $2.5k → $5.8k → $5.8k → $2.1k → $1.2k → $4.1k → $2.4k (still earning) → $2.2k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Mining: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 478
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.

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.

Mining
effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

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
Plate 4 · demand

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.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $600, median $2.4k, 1 in 4 over $25k, 1 in 20 over $490k.

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.

Plate 6 · every pair with this tag

All pairs with Mining

17 pairs with a settingwith: mechanics · settings · any
  1. Mining + Farming Strong odds $22k 18 devs
  2. Mining + Dwarves Fair $9.6k 17 devs
  3. Mining + Nature Fair $2.4k 42 devs
  4. Mining + Science Poor odds $19k 18 devs
  5. Mining + Capitalism Poor odds $7.9k 47 devs
  6. Mining + Magic Poor odds $7.3k 27 devs
  7. Mining + Mystery Poor odds $5.5k 30 devs
  8. Mining + Medieval Poor odds $5.4k 30 devs
  9. Mining + Fantasy Poor odds $5.0k 62 devs
  10. Mining + Sci-fi Poor odds $4.1k 96 devs
  11. Mining + Space Poor odds $4.1k 89 devs
  12. Mining + Post-apocalyptic Poor odds $3.8k 21 devs
  13. Mining + Robots Poor odds $2.7k 18 devs
  14. Mining + Aliens Poor odds $2.7k 13 devs
  15. Mining + Underground Poor odds $2.2k 90 devs
  16. Mining + Horror Poor odds $1.8k 22 devs
  17. Mining + Futuristic Poor odds $1.7k 37 devs
Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

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.