Paradox has grown within the last couple of years, for sure but I think they are still close enough to their niche roots that they benefit more from that past then not.
I think Paradox is extremely comparable to Telltale and can be used to highlight some of the differences in their approaches to development.
Example: Crusader Kings was an unexpected unicorn that was accidentally discovered. Instead of pursuing such accidental unicorns in an attempt to repeat their surprise success, they focused inward and made moves to improve that IP on several levels.
It wasn’t until Paradox overcame their niche development status that they began looking for more unicorns - their recent purchases of independent studios.
Telltales found a developmental unicorn in The Walking Dead. Instead of developing improvements in their engine, in their actual developmental processes and in their marketing (all things Paradox did) - Telltale began looking for more unicorns.
There are other differences well worth comparing too but part of that is culturally based with Paradox being a Nordic company offering support to their employees and complying with laws that other developers don’t need to.