It’s undoubtedly the same kind of game. The difference is complexity: chequers vs chess. My argument is that Rimworld has shown that it’s not niche, it’s that

It’s undoubtedly the same kind of game. The difference is complexity: chequers vs chess. My argument is that Rimworld has shown that it’s not niche, it’s that DF was completely unapproachable (from the UI to installing it) which is self inflicted. The fact that they are making it more approachable and available in steam support this. Except they are now playing second fiddle to a large number of games in the same category. Lots of people here praise DF as some kind of wonder child: the developer doesn’t even use VCS! Amazing! Except it’s not. It’s a complete failure - we have an incredibly innovative game that the developer has completely and 100% failed to capitalise on its potential. And maybe that’s fine - maybe they don’t want to succeed. But that’s indistinguishable from not being able to. Whatever the reason, someone else has eaten their lunch - Rimworld is the 14th best selling game on Steam, with between 3 and 6 million copies sold. Call of duty sold 30 million copies for reference.