Read on Twitter
Attention #gamedev and #indiedevhour lets talk about game genres and sales potential on Steam. Look at this chart. This is what genres the Steam player desires (oooh desire
) Thread about this ...... 
(1/10)
) Thread about this ...... (1/10)
That graph came from devs sending me the num wishlists they got during the Steam Summer Festival. I crossreferenced that to genres. This thread is not how we should market-test every idea and all ditch our dreams to make the same genre. I just want you to know the odds:(2/10)
Knowing the odds will give you some sanity. It will tell you if you are in a risky category so you can tailor your expectations/development. It can tell you if it is wise to invest more in a game or cut features and see how it performs before spending another 6 mo on it.(3/10)
Back to the data: I used @eastshade 's data to calculate the 30%-50%-70% percentile earnings for every game in genres popular with indies. (see this https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DannyWeinbaum/20191115/353349/Genre_Viability_on_Steam_and_Other_Trends__An_Analysis_Using_Review_Count.php)
That graph of earnings vs genre looks like this: (4/10)
That graph of earnings vs genre looks like this: (4/10)
I also used @eastshade 's data to count the number of games tagged with each genre. That graph looks like this. When I did that I realized this graph and the previous are almost mirrors of each other.(5/10)
When I graph the median sales estimate against the total number of games released on Steam you get this chart. (6/10)
That chart is an almost econ 101 text book version of the supply / demand curve. Look I found this one online and I swear the curve color match was a coincidence. (7/10)
Now I am not saying don't make platformers (I make them!) I am just saying that you should be aware of the scale. It's a joke that all indies are platformers. It stopped me cold when I saw how many more there were than any other genre and how low the median sales were(8/10)
If you want to help clarify this data, I am running another survey of the Steam Autumn Festival to see wishlists and genre. If you had a game in the festival, please fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/YPt75Ag5Mn75snXp8
You can also read the full writeup of the data here: http://howtomarketagame.com/2020/10/19/steamgenres/
