I’ve recently been spending ad credits to test out my game’s onboarding. I ran 1 to 2 week tests three times in the past half year and I’ve noticed a very alarming pattern: players just aren’t passing the first few funnels. I thought it was because of bugs or lack of clarity, and despite rigorous testing and feedback from many people, it doesn’t seem to be the case.
Here’s the stats from new users I obtained from sponsored ads on my most recent run:
Here’s the funnel stats from thee same time frame. I put up the approximate time to complete for each funnel step (I did a self-test and added adequate buffer time):
This is where the first problem is: not everyone is even reaching the first funnel step. 1500 new players from ads, but only 1200 actually get to the first funnel (likely closer to 1150, because some of them counted non-ad plays). That’s 20-25% of players who join and can’t even pass the first funnel… which is literally just clicking the screen a single time.
The second funnel is not much better. After the region is unlocked, a very big arrow points you towards where you have to go, which is 2 seconds away. They’re not even reaching that destination. I’ve already lost around 60-65% of players at this point, which is preposterous given the simplicity of the first tutorial step, which should take only 15 seconds.
I decided it would be better if I just joined the game and see what the players were up to and see if they were getting stuck anywhere. But, it just seems like they aren’t doing anything:
This isn’t a cherrypicked server. It seems like every server I join just has people standing still, running aimlessly into walls, or seemingly autoclicking at spawn. This is the core issue. The players that are getting in seem to all be bots. I don’t expect good results when running ads, but can it even be considered a “result” if nothing even happens?
I hope we can get this issue addressed, or at least have some explanations/theories on what is actually happening. I’ve searched around on many different platforms, and it looks like many people have been experiencing the same issue, so it’s definitely not isolated to me.