Creature Collector games on Steam, measured
Catch, raise and battle or befriend creatures, in the long shadow of Pokémon.
552 games tagged Creature Collector came out on Steam in 2025 (431 in 2024), and 516 have come out so far in 2026, +34% on the same weeks of 2025.
Of the 693 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 5.9% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (1.4× the Steam rate).
Most of the niche prices itself under $5 (1.8% reached 1,000 reviews there); $20 and up did best at 27.3%.
1,418 more Creature Collector pages are on Steam but not released yet, 71 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 Creature Collector released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 386.
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.
| Creature Collector | All of Steam | |
|---|---|---|
| Games released | 693 | 24,918 |
| Reached 10 reviews | 69.3% | 53.2% |
| Reached 100 reviews | 24.8% | 17.3% |
| Reached 1,000 reviews | 5.9%95% range 4.4% to 7.9% | 4.2% |
| Median reviews | 27 | 11 |
| Median list price (paid games) | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Free to play | 19.5% | 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 | 334 | 10.2% | 1.8%0.8% to 3.9% | 15 |
| $5 to $9.99 | 109 | 27.5% | 5.5%2.5% to 11.5% | 26 |
| $10 to $14.99 | 50 | 44% | 6%2.1% to 16.2% | 67 |
| $15 to $19.99 | 32 | 34.4% | 0%0% to 10.7% | 47 |
| $20 and up | 33 | 42.4% | 27.3%15.1% to 44.2% | 14 |
— 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 Creature Collector 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
- Fishing: 18.8% reached 1,000 reviews (32 games)
- Cozy: 15.8% reached 1,000 reviews (114 games)
- Cats: 12.1% reached 1,000 reviews (132 games)
Filling fastest in 2026
- Desktop Companion: 48 so far vs 10 (+380%)*
- Roguelite: 38 so far vs 11 (+246%)
- Auto Battler: 37 so far vs 11 (+236%)
| Tag | Games (2024–2025 cohort) | 1,000+ reviews | 100+ reviews | 2026 so far vs 2025 | Unreleased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hidden Object | 191 | 9.4%6% to 14.4% | 33.5% | 104 vs 89+17% | 74 |
| Puzzle | 151 | 6.6%3.6% to 11.8% | 28.5% | 116 vs 93+25% | 121 |
| Cozy | 114 | 15.8%10.2% to 23.6% | 45.6% | 124 vs 77+61% | 175 |
| Idler | 105 | 8.6%4.6% to 15.5% | 34.3% | 125 vs 69+81% | 214 |
| Cats | 132 | 12.1%7.6% to 18.8% | 43.9% | 84 vs 75+12% | 89 |
| Point & Click | 105 | 8.6%4.6% to 15.5% | 29.5% | 74 vs 55+35% | 84 |
| Incremental | 98 | 4.1%1.6% to 10% | 21.4% | 62 vs 46+35% | 129 |
| Wholesome | 87 | 8%4% to 15.7% | 36.8% | 51 vs 64−20% | 49 |
| Collectathon | 77 | 2.6%0.7% to 9% | 24.7% | 58 vs 40+45% | 157 |
| Sandbox | 43 | 0%0% to 8.2% | 25.6% | 31 vs 29+7% | 126 |
| Auto Battler | 33 | 0%0% to 10.4% | 27.3% | 37 vs 11+236% | 86 |
| Life Sim | 33 | 3%0.5% to 15.3% | 21.2% | 35 vs 27+30% | 120 |
| Roguelite | 25 | 0%0% to 13.3% | 20% | 38 vs 11+246% | 112 |
| Fishing | 32 | 18.8%8.9% to 35.3% | 40.6% | 30 vs 24+25% | 86 |
| Desktop Companion* | 12 | — | — | 48 vs 10+380% | 59 |
| Roguelike | 26 | 0%0% to 12.9% | 15.4% | 31 vs 21+48% | 108 |
| Nature | 32 | 3.1%0.6% to 15.7% | 21.9% | 22 vs 25−12% | 61 |
| Farming Sim | 33 | 9.1%3.1% to 23.6% | 15.2% | 20 vs 25−20% | 108 |
| Action-Adventure | 38 | 5.3%1.5% to 17.3% | 18.4% | 12 vs 23−48% | 93 |
| Turn-Based Strategy | 27 | 3.7%0.7% to 18.3% | 18.5% | 21 vs 14+50% | 77 |
| Turn-Based Combat | 26 | 7.7%2.1% to 24.1% | 15.4% | 20 vs 19+5% | 88 |
| Card Battler | 25 | 4%0.7% to 19.5% | 20% | 20 vs 16+25% | 51 |
| Open World | 26 | 7.7%2.1% to 24.1% | 42.3% | 18 vs 10+80% | 76 |
| Arcade | 21 | 0%0% to 15.5% | 14.3% | 20 vs 14+43% | 34 |
— 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 Creature Collector games released since Sep 27, 2025. Still young, so these counts are still climbing.
- Palworld183,246 reviews, 95% positive · $29.99 · Jul 9, 2026
- Aniimo9,532 reviews, 74% positive · Free · Sep 15, 2026
- Digimon Story Time Stranger8,233 reviews, 93% positive · $99.99 · Oct 2, 2025
- Creature Kitchen7,395 reviews, 99% positive · $7.99 · Feb 6, 2026
- Berry Bury Berry6,346 reviews, 98% positive · $7.99 · Jan 29, 2026
- Silly Linguine Cat Simulator Deluxe Online2,918 reviews, 98% positive · Free · Mar 27, 2026
- Horsey Game2,642 reviews, 96% positive · $9.99 · Feb 18, 2026
- Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection2,467 reviews, 80% positive · $69.99 · Mar 12, 2026
What's coming
1,418 Creature Collector pages are live on Steam but not released: 71 with a date in the next 90 days, 366 with a later date, month or quarter, and 981 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 552 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 Creature Collector tag (tag id 916648), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 3,525 games, 2,107 of them released (Steam's own released count: 2,109). 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".