Today was the first time I took a look at the Monthly Game Stats data of my game Strucid. I noticed that compared to other games, my game has an insanely high retention rate but also a ridiculously low monthly player count (1.7 million, which is far below other games of similar popularity).
From the data, I think the logical conclusion is that many players have tried Strucid in previous months and disliked it, resulting in them not playing again this month. However, the ones who do like it tend to stick around for a long time. The most probable explanation is the complexity of the game which scares away casual, low-skill players but at the same time, encourages high-skill players to stay.
How can I attract new players or decrease the skill gap without creating servers divided by levels?
With retention that high and MAU that low, I wouldn’t say it’s anything within the game such as a skill gap holding the game back. It’s likely few people are clicking and playing the game when they see it on the top of the games page which would explain the low MAU count compared to other top games.
I would look into experimenting with different icons and titles such as adding “Battle Royale” directly to the title and logo and running ads, then observing how it affects the number of new players that come in every day.
Besides that the main reason your MAU count isn’t high is likely because every other game is on mobile and Strucid isn’t but that isn’t easily fixable.
Getting new players is probably the hardest thing as they have no clue what the game is about until they play it for the first time. I have a few ways that you could promote your game so that you get a few new users:
This may seem super obvious but you should advertise your game regularly. This will allow for your game to be shown all across the platform and shown to a lot of people that may have not played your game before.
As you said your game is complicated however you could have a quick user tutorial when users first join that explains the basic elements of the game. This will allow for the new players to understand your game better and know what your game is about.
Roblox is beginning to have lots more international users so if you localise your game those users will be more inclined to play your game as the game is in their native language. Having your game localised will grow your target audience and maybe boost your player count.
Having your game available across multiple platforms help with bringing in new players as your game will appeal to more people. The only downside is that FPS games only work on console or pc. If you could figure out a way that you could make your game mobile friendly
This isn’t a bad idea, but it’s important to be careful with a tutorial. This could actually hurt retention by making players leave during the tutorial. Definitely something you want to A/B test.
Welp, perhaps getting a known youtuber or streamer to check the game out? Perhaps alot of the new players take alot of inspiration from whom they watch.
Just an idea, not completely sure if it will help out.
I’ve played your game recently, but it was so hard to play because as soon as a shot at someone they built 999 structures in the blink of an eye. It was extremely frustrating to play and I can’t say that I’ll be coming back because of the high skill gap.
If I may ask, why don’t you want server by level? I feel like servers by level might be a good idea, but make it optional so you don’t have to.
edit: I forgot to address another one of your problems, which is getting new players. I believe reaching out to youtubers might be the easiest way to do so.
I played, and I definitely think the main problem is that high ranked player are in the same game as people just starting. If there were a matchmaking system or some kind of system to make it more fair for new players (a tutorial would also help a lot), that’d probably be good.
I’d also recommend you don’t have the shop as the start screen for the game. New players don’t want to buy things yet - let them play first and offer them things to buy later.
@waterrunner pointed out some amazing points about new players. Nowadays a new hit game releases once every 3-4 weeks on Roblox, and it’s hard for games to maintain themselves. Phantom Forces (as of Apr. 14, afternoon) has 8.7K concurrent users playing, and is the ninth most popular Roblox game on PC. It was formerly higher than this.
With new hit games competing with your’s, it isn’t all that easy to welcome new players. When I was a child, I was always thinking of making a game (off Roblox). My friend said all games get famous because the developers are famous and post the game on their Twitter. Maybe make a deal with someone, they will showcase your game on a video, or a Twitter thread.
The forms of advertising Roblox provides you:
Sponsorships
Advertisements
This once again ties with statistics and the click rate (there’s a term for it that I forget). I know that sponsorships have a higher click rate. Ads are not too bad if you showcase a code like “NEW CODE: STRUCID”, because kids will probably click it. Mobile sponsorships are very cheap, although I’m pretty sure Strucid isn’t mobile-compatible.
Although it isn’t good to have a decreasing rate of new players, it isn’t necessarily bad. If your new player rate is decreasing but your retention rate is increasing, your former members are still loyal to the game And Strucid has had a lot of players join.
Also, try making the game as easy as possible. Start of with a tutorial, because when I was a child and I didn’t know how to play a game, I just quit.
Try improving by using the points waterrunner stated for new players.
