Game not Performing Well... Where to go Next?

[Synthris]

Fellow Developers,

Unfortunately, despite my efforts, I cannot create and sustain a concurrent player base of a full server for my game (10 players). The largest server I have seen was six players a year ago. I have advertised via sponsors on multiple occasions - one recently being a big hit - but no one plays directly after the advertisement period ends (players also do not like empty servers, so they are further discouraged from playing). I prefer sponsors because I understand that many players over 13 have adblockers installed on their browsers, which would reduce the number of impressions if I opt for banner ads instead. In addition, I am not earning a profit to compensate for this expenditure. One way to mitigate this was by adding a cheap game pass to incentivise some monetisation, but no one is buying it. See the images below for reference:

First Sponsor:

Second Sponsor:

Third Sponsor:

Fourth Sponsor:

Fifth Sponsor (last two weeks):

Yes, these ads have a trivial investment of Robux, but I prefer experimenting to see the best outcome; I do not have a significant amount of Robux.

(You could argue that I am not expanding my audience to include mobile players, but I am currently stuck on ContextActionService and integrating that into my sprint system).

I have endeavoured to make improvements to the game’s atmosphere and gameplay as quickly as possible (primarily minor/moderate daily updates in the past few weeks) and tried to make the game engaging. Also, I have added new thumbnails and badge icons to incentivise new players to play my game.

I recognise that games in an “ALPHA” state should not expect to hold a large playerbase, but I see many games on Roblox also in a “Pre-ALPHA/Alpha” state having thousands to hundreds of thousands of visits!

This low playercount problem also makes it harder for me to receive feedback and suggestions to improve the game.

Therefore, I am reaching out to developers here to find and address the problem/s with my game.

Please let me know about specific issues that I have not covered already. I am willing to answer your questions!

Thanks for your time!

[RainyBora]

I wouldn’t rely too heavily on just ROBLOX advertising.

Make tweets about your game, post videos/tutorials on YouTube, make a discord server dedicated to it, etc.

[Synthris]

Is there any other platform I can post on to achieve a notable number of views? YouTube requires a lot of effort for someone like me who is inexperienced, and it is unlikely someone will stumble across videos for my game. I tried Twitter, though it is not going so well. I already have a Discord but with the lack of the game’s player count, messages are few and far between, and it lacks vibrancy.

Thanks for your reply, by the way!

[RainyBora]

Although YouTube can take a lot of effort, you should still continue it.

I’ve seen some games get popular because of TikTok so try that and reddit can possibly bring in more audience and be active on the discord server and interact with the players and listen to feedback.

[mohas191 (MOHAS)]

Today the discovery algorithm only picks based on certain KPIs and how much has been spent on. If you wish concrete help you could contact me and i’ll help you get it out there.

You should also note that you should only sponsor/advertise a game that you would personally enjoy playing. Also focus on your branding and overall gameplay.
As mr beast once said: “Don’t make something the algo will like, make something a billion ppl would want to watch”. (well this is mostly true even though in today’s roblox algorithm there is ways to get cheap games thousands of players)