City Builder games on Steam, measured
Design and grow a settlement or a city and keep its people supplied.
436 games tagged City Builder came out on Steam in 2025 (342 in 2024), and 415 have come out so far in 2026, +27% on the same weeks of 2025.
Of the 574 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 10.5% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (2.5× the Steam rate).
Most of the niche prices itself $5 to $9.99 (2.6% reached 1,000 reviews there); $20 and up did best at 46.5%.
1,529 more City Builder pages are on Steam but not released yet, 90 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.
How fast the niche is filling
Games tagged City Builder released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 328.
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.
| City Builder | All of Steam | |
|---|---|---|
| Games released | 574 | 24,918 |
| Reached 10 reviews | 66.4% | 53.2% |
| Reached 100 reviews | 31.9% | 17.3% |
| Reached 1,000 reviews | 10.5%95% range 8.2% to 13.2% | 4.2% |
| Median reviews | 25 | 11 |
| Median list price (paid games) | $9.99 | $4.99 |
| Free to play | 10.3% | 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.
| Price | Games | 100+ reviews | 1,000+ reviews | Median reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $5 | 145 | 7.6% | 3.4%1.5% to 7.8% | under 10 |
| $5 to $9.99 | 152 | 18.4% | 2.6%1% to 6.6% | 17 |
| $10 to $14.99 | 86 | 40.7% | 8.1%4% to 15.9% | 48 |
| $15 to $19.99 | 61 | 52.5% | 14.8%8% to 25.7% | 113 |
| $20 and up | 71 | 73.2% | 46.5%35.4% to 58% | 698 |
— 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 City Builder 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
- Automation: 22.9% reached 1,000 reviews (35 games)
- Base Building: 21.2% reached 1,000 reviews (104 games)
- Survival: 19.4% reached 1,000 reviews (36 games)
Filling fastest in 2026
- Cozy: 24 so far vs 8 (+200%)
- Automation: 39 so far vs 18 (+117%)
- Roguelite: 31 so far vs 15 (+107%)
| Tag | Games (2024–2025 cohort) | 1,000+ reviews | 100+ reviews | 2026 so far vs 2025 | Unreleased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building | 135 | 13.3%8.6% to 20.1% | 34.8% | 90 vs 91−1% | 397 |
| Sandbox | 106 | 12.3%7.3% to 19.9% | 38.7% | 81 vs 59+37% | 313 |
| Base Building | 104 | 21.2%14.4% to 30% | 51.9% | 81 vs 58+40% | 331 |
| Colony Sim | 92 | 15.2%9.3% to 23.9% | 45.7% | 80 vs 68+18% | 372 |
| Management | 86 | 18.6%11.8% to 28.1% | 38.4% | 84 vs 53+59% | 301 |
| Resource Management | 86 | 11.6%6.4% to 20.1% | 46.5% | 61 vs 45+36% | 212 |
| Puzzle | 67 | 3%0.8% to 10.2% | 14.9% | 39 vs 33+18% | 89 |
| RTS | 54 | 3.7%1% to 12.5% | 27.8% | 35 vs 31+13% | 142 |
| Tower Defense | 45 | 17.8%9.3% to 31.3% | 42.2% | 42 vs 31+36% | 138 |
| Economy | 42 | 9.5%3.8% to 22.1% | 31% | 42 vs 23+83% | 143 |
| Automation | 35 | 22.9%12.1% to 39% | 54.3% | 39 vs 18+117% | 97 |
| Time Management | 44 | 2.3%0.4% to 11.8% | 18.2% | 27 vs 24+13% | 71 |
| Turn-Based Strategy | 40 | 2.5%0.4% to 12.9% | 30% | 23 vs 26−11% | 92 |
| Idler | 31 | 9.7%3.3% to 24.9% | 25.8% | 31 vs 28+11% | 108 |
| Incremental | 26 | 11.5%4% to 29% | 23.1% | 35 vs 19+84% | 74 |
| Survival | 36 | 19.4%9.8% to 35% | 55.6% | 19 vs 21−9% | 145 |
| Life Sim | 28 | 17.9%7.9% to 35.6% | 35.7% | 26 vs 17+53% | 86 |
| Roguelite | 22 | 13.6%4.7% to 33.3% | 50% | 31 vs 15+107% | 93 |
| Crafting | 33 | 9.1%3.1% to 23.6% | 42.4% | 18 vs 12+50% | 84 |
| Farming Sim | 27 | 7.4%2.1% to 23.4% | 40.7% | 19 vs 15+27% | 51 |
| Real Time Tactics | 25 | 4%0.7% to 19.5% | 12% | 14 vs 18−22% | 82 |
| Card Game | 28 | 7.1%2% to 22.6% | 32.1% | 11 vs 14−21% | 52 |
| Immersive Sim | 23 | 13%4.5% to 32.1% | 30.4% | 13 vs 14−7% | 83 |
| Cozy | 11 | — | — | 24 vs 8+200% | 74 |
— fewer than 20 games in the cohort. Ranges are 95% intervals.
What broke through in the last 12 months
The most-reviewed City Builder games released since Sep 27, 2025. Still young, so these counts are still climbing.
- Timberborn24,246 reviews, 96% positive · $34.99 · Mar 12, 2026
- Farthest Frontier11,091 reviews, 86% positive · $34.99 · Oct 23, 2025
- Going Medieval8,686 reviews, 88% positive · $29.99 · Mar 17, 2026
- Heartopia8,041 reviews, 59% positive · Free · Jan 16, 2026
- Jurassic World Evolution 37,525 reviews, 93% positive · $59.99 · Oct 21, 2025
- Space Haven6,029 reviews, 84% positive · $24.99 · May 13, 2026
- Anno 117: Pax Romana5,471 reviews, 65% positive · $59.99 · Nov 12, 2025
- Town to City4,198 reviews, 97% positive · $29.99 · May 26, 2026
What's coming
1,529 City Builder pages are live on Steam but not released: 90 with a date in the next 90 days, 352 with a later date, month or quarter, and 1,087 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 436 came out in all of 2025.
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Related niches
How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you
- Every game carrying Steam's City Builder tag (tag id 4328), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 3,878 games, 2,349 of them released (Steam's own released count: 2,360). 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".