Data insight
Deckbuilding is the fastest-growing genre — and one of the hardest to build well
The contrarian sweet spot: huge momentum, a core AI can't author.
The fastest-growing game types
Genres ranked by the share of their catalogue released since 2023. Deckbuilding leads — yet it's one of the hardest to build well.
| Genre | % released 2023+ |
|---|---|
| Deckbuilding | 64.4 |
| Immersive Sim | 60.7 |
| Farming Sim | 59.4 |
| Walking Sim | 50.5 |
| Colony Sim | 49.9 |
| Souls-like | 49 |
| Interactive Fiction | 48.2 |
| Action RPG | 48.1 |
| City Builder | 47.3 |
| Clicker | 47.1 |
| 2D Platformer | 46.7 |
| Card Game | 45.2 |
Rank genres by the share released since 2023 and deckbuilding leads everything at 64%. The audience is shouting. But deckbuilding scores 3.18 on our buildability scale — *systems craft*, not AI-easy — because the thing that makes a deckbuilder good is encounter balance and economy tuning, the AI-hardest content work there is.
That gap is the opportunity, not the obstacle. The card art generates itself. The UI, the save system, the run structure — all cheap. So a skilled solo developer can let AI build the entire production layer and spend 100% of their human effort on the one thing it can't do: making the numbers sing, the way a Slay-the-Spire-class game does.
It's the general rule in miniature: highest demand × hardest-resisting core = the defensible niche. Where AI flattens production cost, value concentrates in the craft AI can't reach — and balance is exactly that craft.
A note on the figures. Momentum (share released since 2023) is from the MythicLemon Games Catalogue; AI-build difficulty is our own editorial assessment of current tooling.
About this number
From the MythicLemon Marketplace Index, recomputed for this reporting period. Catalogue coverage is complete through May 2026. Methodology →