Genres

Ticker: price and year-over-year change for 40 genres. Price is the median estimated first-year revenue of indie paid launches. The same figures are on the Genres page.

Text size
Game Market DataSteam market, quoted daily
Live games
191,514
on 30 Sep 2026

Tag pairdata 30 Sep 2026

Niches / Sandbox / Cinematic

Sandbox + Cinematic: 6 releases in the last 12 months

There is no price yet: it needs 30 or more indie paid launches in the last four complete quarters. 2 of 11 matured launches earned $100k or more. Releases fell 14% on the year before: 6 against 7.

  • Small sample
Price
n/a
under 30 launches
Price vs a year earlier
n/a
no price
Releases, 12 months
6
7 the year before
Upcoming games
49
coming soon on Steam
Games on the store
82
carrying both tags

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.

Sandbox + Cinematic on each board
BoardValueIntervalSampleStanding
Most anticipatedShare of all upcoming wishlist heat on Steam, with the number of upcoming games beside it.
  • One game dominates the figure
  • Listed after unflagged rows on this board
0.10%share of upcoming wishlist heat0.03% to 0.16%7 ranked of 49 upcoming gameswishlist rank 30 Sep 2026#5,689 of 7,193pairs on this board
Launch successLaunches earning $100k or more, against the number expected for their price tier and launch quarter.Below this board's minimum sample, so not ranked. Needs 30 or more matured launches.
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

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
2
Launches
11
Hit rate
18.2%11.7% to 50.5%
Expected rate
8.1%

Under 30 matured launches, so this pair is not on the launch success board. Read these counts as a small sample.

Revenue spread

11 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
$808
Top tenth
$280,929

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
6
Prior 12 months
7
Change
−14%

Parent tags

  • SandboxGenre pageRanked on every board, with its best pairs.
  • CinematicNot 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.

More with Sandbox

pairs with Sandbox
Every pair with Sandbox

More with Cinematic

pairs with Cinematic
Every pair with Cinematic

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.

Releases

Ticker: 30 upcoming games dated within 90 days, with wishlist rank, release date and followers. The same list is on the Upcoming page.