Tag pairdata 30 Sep 2026

Story Rich + Narrative: a typical launch earns $13,104 in its first year

That is the median of 40 indie paid launches, 2024 Q4 to 2025 Q3. 15 of 78 matured launches earned $100k or more, against 10.0 expected for their price and launch quarter. Releases rose 16% on the year before: 59 against 51.

Price: $13,104
Price vs a year earlier: +66.1%
Releases, 12 months: 59
Upcoming games: 186
Games on the store: 393

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.

Story Rich + Narrative 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.	0.14%share of upcoming wishlist heat	0.10% to 0.18%	29 ranked of 186 upcoming gameswishlist rank 30 Sep 2026	#1,372 of 7,193pairs on this board
Launch successLaunches earning $100k or more, against the number expected for their price tier and launch quarter.	1.38xhits against expected	1.01x to 1.88x	78 launchesindie paid launches 31 Mar 2024 to 1 Apr 2026 (6 to 30 months old)	#1,041 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: 15
Expected: 10.0

Launches: 78
Hit rate: 19.2%11.5% to 33.8%
Expected rate: 12.8%
Against expected: 1.38x1.01x to 1.88x

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

78 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: $202
Median: $6,412
Top tenth: $328,243

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: 59
Prior 12 months: 51

Change: +16%

Parent tags

Story RichNot a genreA theme, mood, feature or presentation tag: never ranked as a market on its own, only inside pairs.
NarrativeNot 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 Story Rich

pairs with Story Rich

Story Rich + Historical$9,68533 launches priced, 53 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Investigation$8,90370 launches priced, 96 releases in 12 months
Turn-Based Strategy + Story Rich$8,09741 launches priced, 43 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Supernatural$5,82533 launches priced, 45 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Dating Sim$5,71476 launches priced, 97 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Hand-drawn$5,46489 launches priced, 127 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Story Rich

More with Narrative

pairs with Narrative

Adventure + Narrative$12,85033 launches priced, 48 releases in 12 months
Exploration + Narrativeno price32 releases in 12 months
Puzzle + Narrativeno price24 releases in 12 months
Casual + Narrativeno price23 releases in 12 months
Mystery + Narrativeno price23 releases in 12 months
First-Person + Narrativeno price22 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Narrative

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.