Choose Your Own Adventure + Romance: a typical launch earns $3,136 in its first year

That is the median of 58 indie paid launches, 2024 Q4 to 2025 Q3. 8 of 132 matured launches earned $100k or more, against 21.3 expected for their price and launch quarter. Releases rose 19% on the year before: 86 against 72.

Price: $3,136
Price vs a year earlier: −23.5%
Releases, 12 months: 86
Upcoming games: 181
Games on the store: 566

Boards

as of 30 Sep 2026

Where this pair stands on each board of the front page. Every value carries its 90% interval and its sample.

Choose Your Own Adventure + Romance on each board
Board	Value	Interval	Sample	Standing
Most anticipatedShare of all upcoming wishlist heat on Steam, with the number of upcoming games beside it.	0.12%share of upcoming wishlist heat	0.08% to 0.16%	20 ranked of 182 upcoming gameswishlist rank 30 Sep 2026	#1,540 of 7,193pairs on this board
Launch successLaunches earning $100k or more, against the number expected for their price tier and launch quarter.	0.45xhits against expected	0.31x to 0.69x	132 launchesindie paid launches 31 Mar 2024 to 1 Apr 2026 (6 to 30 months old)	#5,692 of 6,324pairs on this board
Fewer new releasesFewer launches relative to players. Historically this did not predict better launches. One game dominates the figure	+21%player demand against new supply, relative to Steam	−8% to +62%	29 tracked gamesJun 2026 to Aug 2026 vs Jun 2025 to Aug 2025; releases 30 Sep 2025 to 30 Sep 2026 vs prior 12 months	#732 of 2,361pairs on this board
Rising demandGaining players faster than same-age games. Descriptive, not a launch signal. One game dominates the figure Listed after unflagged rows on this board	+6%review growth against same-age games	−5% to +15%	29 tracked gamesJun 2026 to Aug 2026 vs Jun 2025 to Aug 2025	#1,693 of 2,461pairs on this board

Pairs are noisier than genres: the demand boards at pair level are indicative only.

Launch success

launches 6 to 30 months old

Matured indie paid launches that earned an estimated $100k or more, against the number expected for games at the same price tier and launch quarter.

Hits: 8
Expected: 21.3

Launches: 132
Hit rate: 6.1%3.7% to 11.6%
Expected rate: 16.2%
Against expected: 0.45x0.31x to 0.69x

Launch window: indie paid launches 31 Mar 2024 to 1 Apr 2026 (6 to 30 months old). Hit odds are shrunk toward the Steam-wide rate by 3 expected hits.

Revenue spread

132 launches

Estimated lifetime gross of the same matured launches. Half earned less than the median; one in ten earned more than the top figure.

Bottom tenth: $245
Median: $2,723
Top tenth: $38,820

Estimated from Steam review counts. Lifetime to date, so it differs from the first-year price above.

Supply

raw release counts

Games released with both tags, last 12 months against the 12 before.

Last 12 months: 86
Prior 12 months: 72

Change: +19%
Against Steam: −13%after Steam-wide growth, shrunk by 5 releases

Parent tags

Choose Your Own AdventureGenre pageRanked on every board, with its best pairs.
RomanceNot a genreA theme, mood, feature or presentation tag: never ranked as a market on its own, only inside pairs.

Comparable games

8 indie titles

The biggest indie games in this pair by estimated lifetime gross. Revenue is shown as a number at 50 or more reviews, as a range at 10 to 49, and not at all below 10.

Related niches

pairs with Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Adventure + Dating Sim$3,11675 launches priced, 85 releases in 12 months
Choose Your Own Adventure + Character Customization$2,97334 launches priced, 26 releases in 12 months
Choose Your Own Adventure + Mystery$2,91649 launches priced, 75 releases in 12 months
Psychological Horror + Choose Your Own Adventure$2,54534 launches priced, 83 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Choose Your Own Adventure$2,180127 launches priced, 197 releases in 12 months
Choose Your Own Adventure + Immersive Sim$2,12247 launches priced, 81 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Choose Your Own Adventure

More with Romance

pairs with Romance

Romance + LGBTQ+$5,45434 launches priced, 71 releases in 12 months
Cute + Romance$5,22277 launches priced, 90 releases in 12 months
Anime + Romance$4,97896 launches priced, 120 releases in 12 months
Funny + Romance$4,86732 launches priced, 30 releases in 12 months
Adventure + Romance$4,31378 launches priced, 112 releases in 12 months
Romance + Dating Sim$3,94697 launches priced, 156 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Romance

Verdicts

in development

GMD Verdicts will be a written read on a niche, built from the same data and the published method on this site. Join the early list and we will email you when the first ones are ready. Nothing on this page is held back while you wait.