Choose Your Own Adventure + Text-Based: a typical launch earns $991 in its first year

That is the median of 107 indie paid launches, 2024 Q4 to 2025 Q3. 1 of 211 matured launches earned $100k or more, against 16.6 expected for their price and launch quarter. Releases rose 31% on the year before: 167 against 127.

One game dominates the figure

Price: $991
Price vs a year earlier: 0%
Releases, 12 months: 167
Upcoming games: 268
Games on the store: 1,052

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 + Text-Based 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.	0.03%share of upcoming wishlist heat	0.02% to 0.03%	12 ranked of 268 upcoming gameswishlist rank 30 Sep 2026	#3,234 of 7,193pairs on this board
Launch successLaunches earning $100k or more, against the number expected for their price tier and launch quarter. One game dominates the figure	0.20xhits against expected	0.16x to 0.38x	211 launchesindie paid launches 31 Mar 2024 to 1 Apr 2026 (6 to 30 months old)	#5,809 of 6,324pairs on this board
Fewer new releasesFewer launches relative to players. Historically this did not predict better launches.	Below this board's minimum sample, so not ranked. Needs 15 or more tracked games and 20 or more releases in each 12-month period.
Rising demandGaining players faster than same-age games. Descriptive, not a launch signal.	Below this board's minimum sample, so not ranked. Needs 15 or more tracked games and 1,000 reviews in each window.

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: 1
Expected: 16.6

Launches: 211
Hit rate: 0.5%0.0% to 3.9%
Expected rate: 7.9%
Against expected: 0.20x0.16x to 0.38x

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

211 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: $0
Median: $849
Top tenth: $12,146

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: 167
Prior 12 months: 127

Change: +31%

Parent tags

Choose Your Own AdventureGenre pageRanked on every board, with its best pairs.
Text-BasedNot 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 + Romance$3,13658 launches priced, 86 releases in 12 months
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

Every pair with Choose Your Own Adventure

More with Text-Based

pairs with Text-Based

Horror + Text-Based$2,83130 launches priced, 65 releases in 12 months
Anime + Text-Based$2,10148 launches priced, 70 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Text-Based$1,71867 launches priced, 149 releases in 12 months
Cute + Text-Based$1,36644 launches priced, 69 releases in 12 months
Choices Matter + Text-Based$1,20374 launches priced, 137 releases in 12 months
Interactive Fiction + Text-Based$1,13396 launches priced, 190 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Text-Based

Verdicts

in development

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