Colony Sim games on Steam, measured
Manage a group of individual colonists, each with needs, jobs and a story of their own.
221 games tagged Colony Sim came out on Steam in 2025 (151 in 2024), and 251 have come out so far in 2026, +53% on the same weeks of 2025.
Of the 255 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 13.7% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (3.3× the Steam rate).
Most of the niche prices itself $5 to $9.99 (4.9% reached 1,000 reviews there); $20 and up did best at 55.8%.
1,079 more Colony Sim pages are on Steam but not released yet, 55 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 Colony Sim released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 164.
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.
| Colony Sim | All of Steam | |
|---|---|---|
| Games released | 255 | 24,918 |
| Reached 10 reviews | 69% | 53.2% |
| Reached 100 reviews | 39.2% | 17.3% |
| Reached 1,000 reviews | 13.7%95% range 10% to 18.5% | 4.2% |
| Median reviews | 45 | 11 |
| Median list price (paid games) | $10.99 | $4.99 |
| Free to play | 10.2% | 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 | 52 | 5.8% | 1.9%0.3% to 10.1% | under 10 |
| $5 to $9.99 | 61 | 24.6% | 4.9%1.7% to 13.5% | 16 |
| $10 to $14.99 | 43 | 39.5% | 4.7%1.3% to 15.5% | 69 |
| $15 to $19.99 | 30 | 50% | 13.3%5.3% to 29.7% | 108 |
| $20 and up | 43 | 86% | 55.8%41.1% to 69.6% | 1,307 |
— 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 Colony Sim 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
- Base Building: 23.1% reached 1,000 reviews (78 games)
- Management: 22% reached 1,000 reviews (50 games)
- Survival: 20% reached 1,000 reviews (40 games)
Filling fastest in 2026
- Incremental: 32 so far vs 11 (+191%)
- Idler: 32 so far vs 13 (+146%)
- Automation: 29 so far vs 13 (+123%)
| Tag | Games (2024–2025 cohort) | 1,000+ reviews | 100+ reviews | 2026 so far vs 2025 | Unreleased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City Builder | 112 | 18.8%12.6% to 27% | 42% | 89 vs 69+29% | 387 |
| Base Building | 78 | 23.1%15.1% to 33.6% | 55.1% | 68 vs 51+33% | 302 |
| Management | 50 | 22%12.8% to 35.2% | 46% | 52 vs 38+37% | 247 |
| Sandbox | 47 | 12.8%6% to 25.2% | 53.2% | 47 vs 33+42% | 211 |
| Resource Management | 46 | 10.9%4.7% to 23% | 54.3% | 47 vs 29+62% | 187 |
| Building | 59 | 18.6%10.7% to 30.4% | 35.6% | 29 vs 42−31% | 197 |
| Survival | 40 | 20%10.5% to 34.8% | 55% | 32 vs 28+14% | 201 |
| Incremental | 20 | 10%2.8% to 30.1% | 35% | 32 vs 11+191% | 81 |
| RTS | 28 | 10.7%3.7% to 27.2% | 39.3% | 22 vs 15+47% | 95 |
| Automation | 20 | 10%2.8% to 30.1% | 45% | 29 vs 13+123% | 93 |
| Idler | 12 | — | — | 32 vs 13+146% | 96 |
| Tower Defense | 24 | 8.3%2.3% to 25.8% | 33.3% | 16 vs 14+14% | 61 |
| Economy | 16 | — | — | 23 vs 13+77% | 69 |
— fewer than 20 games in the cohort. Ranges are 95% intervals.
What broke through in the last 12 months
The most-reviewed Colony Sim 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
- Soulmask7,649 reviews, 75% positive · $29.99 · Apr 9, 2026
- StarRupture6,953 reviews, 81% positive · $19.99 · Jan 6, 2026
- Space Haven6,029 reviews, 84% positive · $24.99 · May 13, 2026
- Becastled2,990 reviews, 82% positive · $19.99 · Oct 22, 2025
- The Crust2,035 reviews, 74% positive · $31.99 · Sep 10, 2026
What's coming
1,079 Colony Sim pages are live on Steam but not released: 55 with a date in the next 90 days, 253 with a later date, month or quarter, and 771 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 221 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 Colony Sim tag (tag id 220585), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 2,253 games, 1,174 of them released (Steam's own released count: 1,175). 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".