Niche report · September 2026 · Roguelikes

Action Roguelike games on Steam, measured

Real-time combat in runs that reset on death, with unlocks that carry over between runs.

1,384 games tagged Action Roguelike came out on Steam in 2025 (1,209 in 2024), and 1,505 have come out so far in 2026, +57% on the same weeks of 2025.

Of the 1,849 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 3.5% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (0.8× the Steam rate).

Most of the niche prices itself under $5 (0.8% reached 1,000 reviews there); $15 to $19.99 did best at 24.1%.

4,856 more Action Roguelike pages are on Steam but not released yet, 255 of them dated within 90 days.

Counted game by game from Steam's store on Sep 27, 2026. How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you.

Released in 2025
1,384
1,209 in 2024
2026 so far
1,505
+57% on the same weeks of 2025
Reached 1,000 reviews
3.5%
0.8× the Steam rate (4.2%)
Unreleased pages
4,856
255 dated within 90 days

How fast the niche is filling

Games tagged Action Roguelike released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 957.

Action Roguelike releases per year
2020201
2021337
2022485
2023835
20241,209
20251,384
2026 so farto Sep 27, 20261,505

Source: Steam store search, 11,210 games tagged Action Roguelike, captured Sep 27, 2026

How its games did

Games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, so every one has been on sale at least 14 months, against every Steam game released in the same window. Reaching 1,000 reviews is the usual rule of thumb for roughly $150,000 in gross revenue; 100 reviews is real traction.

Action RoguelikeAll of Steam
Games released1,84924,918
Reached 10 reviews55%53.2%
Reached 100 reviews16.8%17.3%
Reached 1,000 reviews3.5%95% range 2.7% to 4.4%4.2%
Median reviews1111
Median list price (paid games)$4.99$4.99
Free to play12.8%17.7%

Price and outcome

The same cohort by undiscounted US list price on the day we counted. Higher prices go with bigger teams and more content, and a game that cut its price after a weak launch now sits in a cheaper band, so read this as what games priced like yours did, not as proof that raising a price lifts sales.

PriceGames100+ reviews1,000+ reviewsMedian reviews
Under $58697.2%0.8%0.4% to 1.7%under 10
$5 to $9.9941323.2%4.8%3.2% to 7.4%16
$10 to $14.9914636.3%4.8%2.3% to 9.6%53
$15 to $19.997957%24.1%16% to 34.5%200
$20 and up10519%8.6%4.6% to 15.5%11

— fewer than 20 games, too few to compare.

Sub-niches: where the odds and the crowding differ

Other tags that appear in the top seven tags of Action Roguelike games. Tags that describe a look or a platform (Pixel Graphics, Singleplayer) are left out. Players add tags to games that are already popular, so narrow tags flatter their hit rates: compare sub-niches with each other, not with Steam.

Best odds

  • Online Co-Op: 20% reached 1,000 reviews (50 games)
  • Bullet Heaven: 10.4% reached 1,000 reviews (77 games)
  • FPS: 9.8% reached 1,000 reviews (61 games)

Filling fastest in 2026

  • Bullet Heaven: 200 so far vs 42 (+376%)*
  • 2D Platformer: 67 so far vs 26 (+158%)
  • Platformer: 49 so far vs 23 (+113%)
TagGames (2024–2025 cohort)1,000+ reviews100+ reviews2026 so far vs 2025Unreleased
Roguelite6694.5%3.2% to 6.3%23%631 vs 354+78%1,988
Roguelike5973.4%2.2% to 5.1%17.6%508 vs 294+73%1,597
Bullet Hell5593.9%2.6% to 5.9%19.5%459 vs 278+65%1,165
Arcade2601.9%0.8% to 4.4%9.6%207 vs 139+49%588
Shooter2482.4%1.1% to 5.2%12.5%157 vs 149+5%567
Top-Down Shooter2251.8%0.7% to 4.5%15.1%163 vs 111+47%523
Hack and Slash2175.5%3.2% to 9.4%25.3%167 vs 124+35%585
Action RPG2124.7%2.6% to 8.5%20.3%151 vs 121+25%554
Action-Adventure2021.5%0.5% to 4.3%8.9%113 vs 110+3%495
PvE1631.8%0.6% to 5.3%9.2%141 vs 103+37%509
Bullet Heaven*7710.4%5.4% to 19.2%35.1%200 vs 42+376%503
Dungeon Crawler1365.1%2.5% to 10.2%21.3%121 vs 69+75%538
Shoot 'Em Up1522.6%1% to 6.6%21.1%101 vs 66+53%271
Arena Shooter1221.6%0.5% to 5.8%18.9%99 vs 57+74%268
Survival1180.8%0.1% to 4.6%22.9%82 vs 58+41%262
Twin Stick Shooter992%0.6% to 7.1%20.2%71 vs 48+48%216
2D Platformer795.1%2% to 12.3%13.9%67 vs 26+158%170
Combat873.4%1.2% to 9.7%14.9%53 vs 40+33%164
FPS619.8%4.6% to 19.8%34.4%70 vs 45+56%242
Online Co-Op5020%11.2% to 33%46%75 vs 36+108%239
Perma Death671.5%0.3% to 8%9%57 vs 44+30%200
Procedural Generation704.3%1.5% to 11.9%20%53 vs 30+77%206
Tower Defense613.3%0.9% to 11.2%19.7%60 vs 35+71%185
Platformer606.7%2.6% to 15.9%18.3%49 vs 23+113%141

— fewer than 20 games in the cohort. Ranges are 95% intervals. * Steam added this tag in its May 2026 tag overhaul, so part of its growth is developers adopting the new label, not only new games.

What broke through in the last 12 months

The most-reviewed Action Roguelike games released since Sep 27, 2025. Still young, so these counts are still climbing.

  1. BALL x PIT15,516 reviews, 95% positive · $14.99 · Oct 15, 2025
  2. Gamble With Your Friends11,902 reviews, 88% positive · $7.99 · May 1, 2026
  3. Escape From Duckov10,661 reviews, 93% positive · $17.99 · Oct 16, 2025
  4. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors8,485 reviews, 94% positive · $9.99 · Apr 21, 2026
  5. MISERY8,001 reviews, 83% positive · $12.99 · Oct 23, 2025
  6. Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core7,536 reviews, 69% positive · $29.99 · May 20, 2026
  7. Yet Another Zombie Survivors5,598 reviews, 94% positive · $14.99 · Aug 20, 2026
  8. The Spell Brigade5,030 reviews, 86% positive · $12.99 · Apr 29, 2026

What's coming

4,856 Action Roguelike pages are live on Steam but not released: 255 with a date in the next 90 days, 1,083 with a later date, month or quarter, and 3,518 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 1,384 came out in all of 2025.

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How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you

  • Every game carrying Steam's Action Roguelike tag (tag id 42804), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 11,210 games, 6,354 of them released (Steam's own released count: 6,356). Games only: no DLC, soundtracks or software.
  • Success rates use one fixed cohort, games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, because review counts grow with age: a game from last month has not had time to reach 1,000 reviews, and comparing it with a 2024 game would measure age, not success.
  • Review counts are the totals Steam's search shows a US visitor, which may count English-language reviews only. Steam prints no count under 10 reviews, so "under 10" is as precise as the data gets. Prices are the undiscounted US list price on the day we counted, not the launch price: a game that cut its price after launch counts at the new price.
  • Tags are community tags. Players add them to games that are already popular, which flatters the hit rates of narrow tags. Delisted games and age-restricted games are not in Steam's default search, so they are not here either.
  • "Reached 1,000 reviews" is a proxy for commercial success (roughly $150,000 gross by the common rule of thumb), not a revenue figure. We publish no revenue estimates.
  • The full aggregate is public: /api/niches/data. Cite it as "Steam Niche Index, Steam Page Analyzer, September 2026".