Getting Started with Game Gap

Game Gap helps you explore Steam market segments and standout individual games, check their demand and competition, and decide which ideas deserve a closer look.

Demand Score

Central to Game Gap is the demand score, which estimates how much player appetite there is for the typical game in a segment. It’s built from two signals:

• Released games: the median estimated Steam sales of the segment’s released games.
• Upcoming games: the median estimated wishlists of its coming-soon games.

Both are put on a logarithmic scale, so a few blockbusters can’t dominate, then blended as a weighted average. Each signal’s weight depends on how many games stand behind it, so a median resting on one or two games counts for less than one backed by a healthy sample. Using medians rather than totals keeps the comparison fair: a segment of 300 low-selling games shouldn’t outrank one of 15 strong sellers just because it’s bigger.

Segments are then ranked against each other, and the score is reduced when demand is concentrated in one or two standout titles, since a niche carried by a single hit is much harder to break into.

The demand score ranges from 1 to 10, where higher means stronger, broader demand. Segments with no measurable demand score 1.

Ranking

Game Gap ranks segments by a combination of high demand and high uniqueness. Segments with strong player interest and clearer differentiation rise to the top. You will see both the demand score and the Avg. Uniqueness Score on each card; together they explain why a segment ranks where it does.

This default ranking is called Top Picks. Use the Sort by control above the segment list to reorder instead by Demand, Uniqueness, or Median Sales when one of those matters more to you than the blended default. While a search is active, results open in Relevance order (see below), and you can still switch to any of these.

Main Workflow

1) Start on the segment list page

Open Game Gap and choose the result space you want to explore:

• Segments groups related games into market niches.
• Proven Pioneers surfaces unusual, well-reviewed indie games with demonstrated demand.
• Missed Opportunities surfaces unusual games with demonstrated demand and weaker reviews. Their reports help distinguish execution problems from weaknesses in the idea itself.

The Both / 2D / 3D pills share the same dimensionality across these lists. Both includes the whole catalogue, including games that do not state a dimensionality. Numeric filters and sorting are retained separately for each list.

Type anything into the Search box, from a single word like “Tycoon” to a full description of your idea, then press Enter or Search. You never pick a search mode: every search looks for exact matches and for games that are similar in meaning. Exact matches cover segment tags and titles, and game titles, descriptions and tags. Similar-in-meaning results find related games that don’t use your exact words. Results are ranked by Relevance, so the strongest matches come first. Separate several keywords with commas to match any of them. Clear search removes the query while keeping your other filters.

For segments, relevance combines exact matches with how many of the most similar Steam games each segment contains. A segment found only by similarity must also pass the same demand and big-studio checks used by Data Explorer’s related-gaps suggestions. For the two anchor lists, exact matches come first, followed by the most similar games in the selected list. If similarity search is briefly unavailable, Game Gap shows exact matches and tells you so.

Open Performance, Uniqueness & Other Filters below the search box to set numeric ranges, then choose Apply Filters. Segment-type icon toggles sit beside sorting and only appear for Segments. Scrapbook Clippings narrows the active list to items clipped in your current project while keeping all your filters available.

2) Read segment cards

Each card includes:

• Segment title and tag chips
• Short summary
• Demand score and Avg. Uniqueness Score
• Median Sales/Wishlist context (where applicable)
• Total games and % coming soon
• Warning/type icons (if present)

Click a card to open full segment details in a new tab.

3) Deep dive on segment details

The detail page is where you validate the opportunity with richer evidence:

• Segment overview
• Player sentiment summary (likes/dislikes from reviews)
• Warnings and flags (Old But Gold, Goliath’s Playground, Stampede, Achievement Farming, Studio Monopoly)
• Segment composition metrics
• Performance metrics and growth deltas, including Median Pre-Launch Wishlists (what games here had at launch) and Median All-Time Wishlists, both taken across released and unreleased games with a figure
• Opportunities and challenges
• Market gaps and developer fit commentary
• Game Features: the game-design features most common in this niche (see below)
• Full game table for that segment
• “Hollow Hits” and “Top Outliers” spotlight lists when available

Sections load independently rather than waiting on one another. If you are the first person to open a segment, the segment overview and player sentiment summary may take a few moments to generate (“Building segment overview…” / “Summarising player sentiment…”) while the game table and metrics populate right away.

You can clip the segment to your Scrapbook with the book icon in the header of the detail page, as well as from its card in the list.

4) Continue into concept validation

Each detail page ends with “Inspired by a market gap? Validate your idea with Concept Compass”. Click Open Concept Compass to hand the market signal straight into a fresh concept in a new tab.

Reading Proven Pioneers and Missed Opportunities

The lists

Each card shows the game’s position in the list, capsule art, release date, positive reviews, uniqueness and estimated Steam sales and revenue. Sort by offers Top Picks (the default), Uniqueness, Sales, Revenue and Newest, plus Relevance while a search is active. Performance, Uniqueness & Other Filters narrows the list by estimated Steam sales, estimated Steam revenue, uniqueness, positive reviews (%), age in years and developer lifetime revenue. Subscribers can clip a game to the Scrapbook with the book icon on its card.

Adult games stay in these lists. If your account hides NSFW content, their capsule art shows an NSFW placeholder and their screenshots stay hidden.

The report

Click a card to open the game’s report in a new tab. The header shows the capsule art, a short description, the release date, a Game details link and the game’s uniqueness score. Below it you’ll find estimated Steam sales and revenue (with their age-adjusted rank), the SteamDB review score, screenshots and the game summary. The facts appear straight away; the charts and written sections load separately.

The report then works through these sections:

• What makes it unique: the game’s distinctive hook.
• Is there a gap here?: the demand and competition check described below.
• Marketing to this audience: marketing opportunities and risks.
• What players tell us: a review overview and what players praise and criticise.
• Ideas from Adjacent Markets: prototype directions, shown only when at least one Adjacent Market exists.
• Before you follow this lead: cautions, shown only when there is one to show.
• What would it take to build here?: what a developer would need to compete.
• The game’s features, each linking to its feature report.

Is there a gap here?

Proven Pioneers and Missed Opportunities are unique by definition, so they have few if any truly related games. Is there a gap here? instead looks at the 200 most similar games, which we call adjacent games, to find successful titles nearby. New ideas often come from the creative space between the game you’re reading about and a successful adjacent game. The check asks two questions, comparing against Steam as a whole:

• Demand. Has any adjacent game sold more than the average Steam game? Those games are Adjacent Markets: proof that players already buy something close by. If none have, the game is a lone outlier. It could be a one-off or the start of a trend; either way, you’ll need to bring your own audience.
• Competition. Are developers moving in? This compares the share of adjacent games that are new or upcoming with the same share across Steam. The verdict reads Becoming Crowded, Typical for Steam or Below Average.

A headline above the charts sums up both answers, for example Adjacent games show proven demand or A lone outlier.

The radar puts the game at its centre, with more similar games closer in. Red games sold more than the Steam average. Yellow rings mark games surrounded by unusually many new or upcoming releases. Scan again replays the sweep.

Two charts sit below the radar. In both, the most similar games are on the left:

• Proven demand plots each adjacent game’s estimated Steam sales. The dashed line marks the Steam average, and games above it are highlighted in red.
• New competition plots, for each adjacent game, the share of its 30 nearest games that are new or upcoming. The dashed line marks the Steam average. The dotted yellow line marks 1.5 times that average, and games at or above it are highlighted in yellow.

A game is left off a chart when its value for that chart is unknown, for example when it has no sales estimate.

Move your pointer across either chart and the nearest highlighted game is selected; arrow keys do the same. The selected game’s card shows its similarity rank, estimated sales, SteamDB score and the share of new or upcoming games around it. Click a highlighted game, or See Details on its card, to open its game page in a new tab.

Scores are relative to their own list and publication, so a score from Proven Pioneers can’t be compared directly with one from Missed Opportunities.

Ideas, cautions and supporting games

Each card in Ideas from Adjacent Markets links a prototype direction to an Adjacent Market. Explore supporting games opens a Supporting games preview in a new tab. The preview lists that market’s game and its similar games in a game table, with a written overview. Choose Save Data Table to keep the table and its overview in your Scrapbook, or Back to anchor report to return.

Before you follow this lead uses the same badges as segment warnings:

• Stampede Warning: the competition verdict is Becoming Crowded. The badge gives the share of adjacent games that are new or upcoming and the same share across Steam.
• Established Studio: one or more similar games share this game’s developer, so its success may lean on a catalogue and audience you won’t have.
• Older Release: the game launched 10 or more years ago, and its market may have changed since.

The written sections can be reused for up to 30 days. The charts always use the current publication.

Game Features

The Game Features section of a segment’s detail page shows up to six game-design features that games in this niche are built from. They’re taken from the games most similar to the segment and ranked by how much more common they are here than across Steam as a whole, so you see what makes this niche distinctive, not just features every game has.

Each card shows the feature’s category and name. Click a card to open its full feature report in a new tab, with implementation advice, production cost and what players love or hate about it.

Game Features make great candidates for your Concept Compass core features. The section is hidden for segments where no distinctive features stand out.

Finding Segments from a Game’s Page

Any game’s page can link straight into Game Gap. Under “Game Gap Opportunities”, you will see the market segments that game belongs to:

• Up to 3 segments are shown, the highest-ranked first
• If none of the game’s segments clear the usual ranking bar, the single best one is still shown, so a game that genuinely belongs somewhere always links somewhere
• If the game does not belong to any segment, the section does not appear

Click a segment button to open its full details in Game Gap.

Curated Mode from Data Explorer

If you come from Data Explorer’s market-gap discovery prompt, Game Gap opens in a curated view.

In curated mode:

• You see only segments that overlap with your Data Explorer result set
• A banner explains that these are related gaps
• You can exit curated mode anytime and return to the full market stream

Saving to your Scrapbook

Subscribers can keep what they find in their Scrapbook:

• Segments: click the book icon on a list card or in the header of a segment’s detail page. Clipped segments also appear under Bookmarks on the dashboard.
• Searches: Save Search in the filters keeps your current filters so you can reopen them later.
• Games: Save Data Table above a segment’s games table, or on a supporting games preview, saves them as a Data Table you can edit and compare in the Workspace. To clip a single Proven Pioneer or Missed Opportunity, use the book icon on its list card or on the capsule art in its report.
• Evidence: on a Proven Pioneers or Missed Opportunities report, the small book icons save the unique hook, the marketing sections, the review overview, what players praise and criticise, and What would it take to build here? to Snippets. On a segment page they save the summary boxes, opportunity callouts, Developer Fit and the full Top Outliers list to Snippets, Launch Efficiency cards to Stats (with their sample size and Steam comparison), and Game Engines to Charts. Cards without enough data can’t be clipped.
• Text: select any text and click Clip (or press Alt+Shift+S) to save it to Snippets.

Scrapbook Clippings view

Choose Scrapbook Clippings in the top control row:

• Segments shows clipped market segments; Proven Pioneers and Missed Opportunities show clipped games that currently belong to that list.
• Search, dimensionality, sorting and advanced ranges still apply.
• Switching projects refreshes the matching clips.
• Choose All to return to the complete list.
• Save Search retains this restriction, the selected list and your filters. Restoring an older saved search removes the retired subcategory restriction.

Legacy Segments

Opening an old clip or a shared link can sometimes take you to a segment from an earlier version of the Game Gap model. These carry an orange “Legacy segment” badge on the card and a full notice on the detail page, since their stats and member games reflect that older clustering rather than the current one. Legacy segments never appear in normal browsing, only via an old clip or link, so if you want an up-to-date read on that space, browse the current market segments instead.

Segment-Type Toggles and NSFW Behavior

The icon row beside sorting controls whether flagged segment types are included. It only appears for Segments.

• Active icon: include that segment type
• Inactive icon: exclude that segment type

Each toggle corresponds to a specific segment flag:

• Goliath

  • Meaning: The segment has strong big-studio presence.
  • Trigger: A meaningful share of games are from established studios/developers with high historical Steam revenue.
  • When toggled off: Segments flagged as “Goliath’s Playground” are filtered out.

• Stampede

  • Meaning: The segment has unusually heavy pipeline pressure from unreleased games.
  • Trigger: More than 30% of games in the segment are marked “coming soon”.
  • When toggled off: Segments with the Stampede warning are filtered out.

• Achievement Farming

  • Meaning: The segment appears inflated by low-effort achievement-focused titles.
  • Trigger: A high share of games have very large achievement counts (100+), which can distort performance comparisons.
  • When toggled off: Achievement-farming-dominated segments are filtered out.

• Studio Monopoly (Cult Following)

  • Meaning: A single developer heavily dominates top performance in the segment.
  • Trigger: Top games are concentrated under one studio/developer identity.
  • When toggled off: Cult-following/monopoly segments are filtered out.

• NSFW

  • Meaning: The segment contains adult-content games.
  • Trigger: Segment-level NSFW flag.
  • When toggled off: NSFW segments are filtered out entirely.

• Franchise Dominated

  • Meaning: A single franchise owns a large portion of segment performance and attention.
  • Trigger: Segment-level franchise concentration signal.
  • When toggled off: Franchise-dominated segments are filtered out.

NSFW behavior is split intentionally:

• NSFW segments can still appear in results
• If your account is set to hide NSFW content, capsule/screenshot imagery is hidden on cards/details
• Turn off the NSFW toggle icon if you want to remove NSFW segments entirely

Advanced Filters

The advanced panel lets you narrow by segment-level metrics with both hard thresholds and banded ranges.

How bounds work:

• If you fill only Min, you keep segments at or above that value
• If you fill only Max, you keep segments at or below that value
• If both are empty, no bound is applied

Composition filters

• % Coming Soon (Min/Max)

  • Controls how pipeline-heavy a segment is.
  • Useful for reducing launch-crowding risk by setting a lower max.

• % Indie (Min/Max)

  • Controls how indie-leaning the segment is.
  • Useful if you want to avoid markets dominated by larger organizations.

• % Very Positive+ (Min/Max)

  • Controls overall reception quality of games in the segment.
  • Useful for identifying either high-quality benchmarks or weaker quality bands you believe you can outperform.

Performance and revenue range filters

These use range bands (not exact single values), so they are best for quickly narrowing by order-of-magnitude:

• Median Sales Range

  • Filters segments by typical unit-sales scale.

• Median Revenue Range

  • Filters segments by typical gross revenue scale.

• Median Wishlists Range

  • Filters segments by pre-launch demand scale where coming-soon titles are relevant.

• Median Developer Lifetime Revenue Range

  • Filters segments based on the historical strength of developers active in that segment.
  • Useful for avoiding spaces where incumbent teams have substantially larger prior market power.

Market uniqueness and maturity filters

• Avg. Uniqueness Score (Min/Max)

  • Higher values = stronger differentiation and fewer close substitutes.
  • Lower values = denser competition around typical games in the segment.

• Median Age in Years (Min/Max)

  • Controls how mature or recently formed the segment is.
  • Lower age tends to emphasize newer trends; higher age tends to emphasize established markets.

Practical filter recipes

• Lower-competition scouting

  • Higher min uniqueness score
  • Lower max % coming soon
  • Keep Goliath and Franchise Dominated toggles off

• Quality-upside scouting

  • Moderate/high demand cards
  • Mid-range or lower % Very Positive+
  • Segment warnings reviewed before final selection

• Indie-feasible scouting

  • Higher minimum % indie
  • Lower developer lifetime revenue band
  • Goliath toggle off

Use these to move from discovery to decision quality.

Practical Strategy

A reliable workflow for most users:

1. Start broad (Both dimensionality, Segments, All rather than Scrapbook Clippings)
2. Keep all segment-type toggles active initially
3. Review top-ranked segments (they combine high demand with high uniqueness)
4. Open 3-5 segments in new tabs and compare warnings, composition, and game table patterns
5. Remove risky segment types (e.g. Stampede or Goliath) only after you’ve seen the full landscape
6. Move top candidates into Concept Compass for concept-level validation

FAQ

Why don’t I see old Game Gap modes anymore?

The v6 redesign merged mode-specific outputs into one segment workflow so you can compare opportunities and risks in one place.

Why are some segment images blurred/hidden?

Your NSFW display setting can hide media while still showing the segment’s data. Disable NSFW segments via the icon toggle if you want to remove them entirely.

Why can a segment have high demand but still feel risky?

Demand alone is not enough. Always read warnings, uniqueness, composition, and competitive concentration before deciding.

Why does a game’s page only show one segment, even when it looks like a weak fit?

That is the fallback behavior described above. Membership in a segment is a fact worth linking to, even when none of a game’s segments clear the usual ranking bar. In that case Game Gap shows the single best one rather than showing nothing at all.

Free vs subscriber access

Game Gap is available on paid plans, including the full segment list, detail pages, Game Features and the Scrapbook. See the pricing page for plan details.

If you have any questions about using any of our tools, drop us an email at support@game-oracle.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.