Weird question since we have successful games like Journey, but if the demand is there, why does the industry only make games with combat and why are those the games that shine the brightest on E3/Gamescom/TGS? Check any showreel for Unreal or Unity to see that a vast majority uses combat. Journey, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and The Stanley Parable are successful and none of them rely on combat. 

This makes it sound like a "There are too many violent video games!!"-rant but trust me, I play the crap out of my fair share of violent games (How else do you act out your frustration that comes from the world around us?... Just me?)

The reason I ask the question is because I have an entrepreneur course where we have to find a market and make a product. I do have an idea for a game I want to make but I'm not sure how I can defend my business decision if there's no hard data to go on. So I was wondering what you thought about it and if you knew where I could find hard data? Maybe the fact that they do sell well is proof enough but I might need more to go on.

I'd appreciate any sort of help, THANKS! Oh, and yay for my first post :D

Well you can just look at Nintendo. They have some of the most popular franchises around and they are pretty non-violent. Unless you think something like fighting cute creatures until they pass out is violent.

Nintendo has a violent history. 

Well, I would like more visual novels and puzzle games with some form of story mode. Man, I really want a M&M Clash of Heroes sequel.

Like 80% of Nintendo's hits are non-violent games. Unless you consider jumping on a goomba's head or hitting Tom Nook on the head with a bug net to be violent. Last gen there was Wii Sports, Brain Age, Wii Fit, and a lot of other games which had significantly higher demand than any violent game.

Ubisoft had their Just Dance series which sold tens of millions.

Most puzzle games are non-violent.

All the Sim games, and games that have copied them, many of them sell in the millions.

Mobile is packed with non violent games. Candy Crush, Pokemon Go, all those casino games, Hay Day, the Kim Kardashian games and their clones, lots of adventure games and virtual novels, walking simulators, etc...

There's quite a few.

Stuff like Fez, Journey, Gone Home, Witness,... are without violence.
Pikmen, Mario, Lego games, littlebigplanet, Minecraft, Peggle, Portal, Animal Crossing, ... ect.

You can easily make platformers, or games with mystery/exploration, puzzle games without any violence, and do well.

Even in games where you must fight, you could have the enemy be cute things that dont die when beat.

Maybe they simply surrender? or run away? and the fighting could be done with non violent means.

Yeah, that fucking ape throwing barrels at that poor construction worker was brutal.

There are demand for non-violent games, but sadly not nearly as high as I would like. Violence appeals to many, now most people like to sit down and play a good session of Mario Kart with friends, but when it comes to online or especially singleplayer violence generally wins out.

I would very much like to see a shift back to more "family-friendly" games but if you're making a game Violence is a much safer option, unless you have a major brand (lego/mario), hell even Activision felt they needed to use an already existing brand in Spyro to launch their skylanders series.

"Well you can just look at Nintendo. They have some of the most popular franchises around and they are pretty non-violent. Unless you think something like fighting cute creatures until they pass out is violent."

That's a very good point. However, even most of those games rely on fighting the enemies in order to get your point across. It's not the main thing to jump on Goombas but you still do if they're an obstacle. Pokémon relies on creatures fighting other creatures etc, etc. 

I'm not at all trying to disregard your answer but I'm trying to find the games that doesn't rely on fighting (physical) at all as a main mechanic.

Animal Crossing is a very good example though and that is also highly successful so your point is definitely valid. I should look into Nintendo titles even more.

I appreciate your response!

They taught me it was ok to kick turtles and play with guns while shooting defenseless ducks next.  Sadistic.