Idea check

Pick up to three tags and a price. Get a plain answer: your odds of a $100k first year, what launches like yours earned, what you are up against, and what to watch for.

1Your idea

2The readout

Lens West-facing view

Standard West-facing view Without the breakout Last 18 months

Games mostly reviewed outside China: drops games with 35% or more of their reviews in Chinese. That share is measured for games with 2,000+ reviews; for smaller games it is guessed from the game's name. West-facing view figures are measured across all prices. By-price lens figures are not computed yet, so this view shows all prices.

Sample 30+

10+ launchesshow small samples 30+ launches 100+ launchesonly big markets

Hides anything measured on fewer launches.

West-facing view 30+ launches Reset

Your odds

1 of 93 Dark + Hidden Object launches at any price earned $100k+ in their first year.

Chance of $100k+

1 of 93

1 of 93 launches: too few for a steady rate. Notch: 1 in 15 for all indie launches.

Chance of $10k+

Not computed yet

93 launches, too few for a typical figure (it needs 100). $1k+: not computed yet. Notch: 18 in 100, all indie launches.

Competition

93 launches

At any price, in two years (about 47 a year). Busier than 53 in 100 tag pairs; the notch is the middle one.

Coming soon

90 games

Coming-soon games with these tags. More than 64 in 100 tag pairs.

What launches like this earned in their first year

Odds by size: the chance of a first year past each line.

$1k+first yearNot computed yet for West-facing view.

$10k+first yearNot computed yet for West-facing view.

$100k+first year1 of 93 launchesall indie launches: 7 in 100.

Dark + Hidden Object at any price all indie launches. 93 launches, too few for a typical figure (it needs 100).

Warning lamps

2 of 5 lit

One-hit marketLit
Dead Signal earned 62% of all the money. Read the typical figure, not the hits.
Audience splitToo few
Too few to tell: it needs 5+ hits in both views.
Small sampleLit
Only 1 hit in 93 launches at any price. A few games either way would move this a lot.
May be luckOff
Clear.
Changed recentlyToo few
Too few to tell: it needs 5+ hits in both views.

Lens checkOne-hit market. Standard: the base the others are compared with. West-facing view: too few to tell. Without the breakout: moves the answer. Last 18 months: too few to tell.

Standard, West-facing view, Without the breakout, Last 18 months. Lenses use all prices.

Earnings are estimated from store reviews, so the $100k line is soft: across the estimate's range, the share of all indie launches above it runs from about 6 to 7.5 in 100. Sales on Steam before Steam's cut; about 58% of it reaches the developer.

Indie paid launches 12 to 36 months old, measured 3 Oct 2026. Coming-soon counts from the store, 3 Oct 2026.

3What next

Monthly read

Free

A monthly read on Dark + Hidden Object

Once a month we re-measure your odds at any price and tell you in plain words what changed.

Your odds, re-measured on the latest launches
How last month's launches with these tags did
Who is about to launch, highest on wishlists first

If the read went out today 3 Oct 2026

Your odds1 of 93 earned $100k+ at any price, against 1 in 15 for all indie launches.
EarningsOdds by size: $1k+ not computed yet · $10k+ not computed yet · $100k+ 1 of 93 launches.
Launches69 games of every kind with these tags in the last 12 months (55 the year before).
Coming soon90 games.

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Comparables

Lifetime

Top earners with these tags, est. lifetime salesFree until launch

Dead Signallaunched 2023, 1,010 reviews$354k

1Dead Signal$354k2023

2Last Lesson$24k2023

3日本事故物件監視協会2 -Japan Stigmatized Property-$18k2025

4The Gravedigger$16k2024

5Wound Man$14k2023

Open free preview

ComparablesFree until launchClick to unlockLifetime top earners like yours

4Data notes

Odds and earnings: Figures of 3 Oct 2026: 26,291 indie paid launches 12 to 36 months old (majors, $40+, adult and free games out). A hit is an estimated first-year revenue of $100k or more. Earnings are sales on Steam after discounts and regional prices, before Steam's 30% cut, refunds and sales tax. About 58% of it reaches the developer. "Typical" is the median; "top quarter" is the 75th percentile and "top tenth" the 90th. Typical figures are shown from 100 launches; below that we show the chance of clearing $1k, $10k and $100k.
Tags and combinations: 319 tags (genres and descriptors such as 2D and Casual), 4,635 tag pairs and 8,257 three-tag combinations. Pairs and triples are only in the data with 40 or more launches, so a missing one has fewer than 40; the exact count is not stored.
Price band rates: under $5: 1 in 238 (13,785 launches); $5 to $10: 1 in 28 (6,979 launches); $10 to $20: 20 in 100 (4,304 launches); $20 to $40: 44 in 100 (1,223 launches). All prices: 1 in 15. With "Any price", the comparison is all indie launches.
Gauges: Competition places the pick among combinations of the same size (single tags, pairs or triples) at the same price; coming soon places single tags and pairs among all genres and niches. The notch is the middle one. Earnings notches show every game at the price.
Lamps: One-hit market: one game holds over half the money. Audience split: the West-facing view (games mostly reviewed outside China) moves the chance more than a random cut of the same size would, with 5+ hits on both sides, or moves typical earnings over 25% with 100+ launches in the view. Review language is measured for games with 2,000+ reviews; for smaller games it is guessed from the name. Small sample: under 30 launches or 5 hits. May be luck: the gap to the base rate is small enough that chance alone could give it 95 times in 100. Changed recently: the same test as Audience split, on launches from the last 18 months. With fewer than 5 hits a lamp says too few to tell and stays grey.
Lens check: Computed on all-price figures (by-price lens figures are not computed yet). Standard is the base and is not counted. Three-tag combinations carry no lenses yet, so their pips stay grey.
Competition: Launches in the two-year sample. Coming-soon counts for tags and pairs come from the nightly niche rollup (3 Oct 2026); for three tags, from the coming-soon list, which stores only each game's top five tags, so the count is a floor. Named games are the highest on wishlists; adult-tagged games are left out.
Comparables: The top indie earners stored for these tags, with est. lifetime sales (not first year, and before Steam's cut). Three-tag combinations have none stored, so the card shows the most specific readable pair inside and says so. Matching by price and launch year is not computed yet.
Soft estimate: Revenue is reviews times a multiplier times price. Checked against 453 published sales figures: copies per review are set by price from those figures (28 under $5, 33 at $5 to $10, 40 at $10 and up); right for the typical game, rough for any single game. Across its likely range the overall base rate runs about 6 to 7.5 in 100, so every readout carries that note.