Tag pairdata 30 Sep 2026

Tower Defense + Cute: a typical launch earns $424 in its first year

That is the median of 40 indie paid launches, 2024 Q4 to 2025 Q3. 4 of 81 matured launches earned $100k or more, against 3.9 expected for their price and launch quarter. Releases rose 34% on the year before: 63 against 47.

Price: $424
Price vs a year earlier: −49.3%
Releases, 12 months: 63
Upcoming games: 134
Games on the store: 380

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.

Tower Defense + Cute 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.	Below this board's minimum sample, so not ranked. Needs 5 or more wishlist-ranked upcoming games.
Launch successLaunches earning $100k or more, against the number expected for their price tier and launch quarter.	1.02xhits against expected	0.70x to 1.68x	81 launchesindie paid launches 31 Mar 2024 to 1 Apr 2026 (6 to 30 months old)	#2,699 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: 4
Expected: 3.9

Launches: 81
Hit rate: 4.9%2.5% to 10.7%
Expected rate: 4.8%
Against expected: 1.02x0.70x to 1.68x

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

81 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: $40
Median: $606
Top tenth: $23,590

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: 63
Prior 12 months: 47

Change: +34%

Parent tags

Tower DefenseGenre pageRanked on every board, with its best pairs.
CuteNot 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 Tower Defense

pairs with Tower Defense

Tower Defense + City Builder$8,80032 launches priced, 43 releases in 12 months
Tower Defense + Base Building$2,00381 launches priced, 129 releases in 12 months
Tower Defense + Survival$1,61947 launches priced, 68 releases in 12 months
Tower Defense + Roguelite$1,516109 launches priced, 196 releases in 12 months
Tower Defense + Roguelike$1,17390 launches priced, 163 releases in 12 months
Tower Defense + Resource Management$1,13335 launches priced, 71 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Tower Defense

More with Cute

pairs with Cute

Open World + Cute$5,88634 launches priced, 33 releases in 12 months
Cute + Romance$5,22277 launches priced, 90 releases in 12 months
Story Rich + Cute$3,396163 launches priced, 188 releases in 12 months
Cute + LGBTQ+$2,97434 launches priced, 56 releases in 12 months
Psychological Horror + Cute$2,84651 launches priced, 66 releases in 12 months
Visual Novel + Cute$2,798212 launches priced, 288 releases in 12 months

Every pair with Cute

Verdicts

in development

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