Issues with Home recommendations

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Hey guys, im having a problem with homerecommendations / roblox algorithm.

In the past weeks ive pushed alot of updates, tried everything to get it back on track but it doesnt seem to get any better.

My game got like 5-700 players shortly after the release. These days all metrics are way better than back then but im stuck at around 100 ccu.

There was a point where my benchmarks became extremely high and volatile, you can see it on the screenshots attached.

I have also compared the benchmarks with some other developers which got X10-X100 WITHOUT having any better metrics (same categorie, Simulation->Tycoon).

I dont expect to have 10k ccu or something but being locked at around 100.. there seem to be something wrong.

Qualified playthrough rate pending between 1 and 1,5% the past weeks.
Currently making between 1,5 and 2,5 robux per visit.

The question now: Is there something wrong? Or are games supposed to get pulled out very quick and its better to screw the current playerbase and just reupload with slight changes?

Again, im not looking / thinking to deserve 10k ccu or something, being locked at 100 just seems extremely wrong though, especially since all metrics went up gradually over the past weeks and still no difference.

I even ran ads two weeks ago for around $2-300, no effect.

I would appreciate if someone from Staff could be giving it a quick look, i wouldnt ask if i wasnt sure that there is something off, especially after more than 3 weeks of hard work (which increased every single metric pretty good) and the comparement to other games benchmarks. The only difference we could find was the “age”. Their game is 3-4 weeks old, mine is a couple months.

Every hint on whats wrong is highly appreciated!
Best Regards

EDIT:
The game is “Bamboo Tycoon”:

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1 Like
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Have you tried changing the thumbnail or icons? Usually that yields the most change from what I’ve seen.

6 Likes
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Yes, i have changed the game icon and thumbnail yesterday and it just became worse, so ive put back in the previous thumbnail → its bad as well now. Ive changed to another new icon now + two new thumbnails.

The amount of home recommendation impressions is very small and it seem to be the same people over and over again which leads to a lower qptr of course, since most of them know it already and will play it less likely than new people.

It all started with the change to those extremely chaotic “similar players” benchmark, requirements basically doubled and the floor values increased a ton. I managed to get further up anyways but still no change. Similar games in the same category with similar or worse benchmarks getting way more homerecommendations and i want to understand why. They all got a QPTR of around 1% - 1.5%.

I have had 3% when it was new (obviously its higher then, since no one knows your game and more people tend to click/play it) and “died” when my game got moved to this “Similar players” stuff. Two other developers ive talked to told me it didnt happened to them (the dramatically changed benchmark values from one day to another).

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After your game gets big enough and has a big enough audience, all your benchmarks update in comparison to the other games your players play, so it looks like it jumped a lot because your game is just being compared to better games instead of the entire simulator genre.

Your main issue here is the QPTR, it is honestly very low and you just have to keep thumbnails until one sticks.

Your CCU during release was a lot higher because your QPTR was 3% when it was new, right now it is 0.8% so your CCU is like a quarter of what it was like before even though your stats are still good

Running ads temporarily boosts the number of impressions your game gets but it doesn’t address the low QPTR

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What do you mean with better games? It shows like 10 other games on the dashboard but those games got like 0-50 ccu.

The week before all the changes (which obviously increased almost all metrics very strong), the qptr was on 1,5-1,6%, no ccu change at all, its stuck on round about 100 for weeks now. 0.8 or 1,6% qptr doesnt make a difference at least on this experience.

A 3+% qptr isnt normal and not something you can just achieve ongoing as far as i know. It was that high (with same icon and same thumbnails) because no one ever played it before. Now it keeps getting suggested to the same people, most of them played already (round about 55-60% of homerecommendations) so the qptr drops alot by nature, not much you can do unless you trick them with bait icons/thumbnails or change the entire game weekly or something.

Either way, there seem to be a problem, since another game im aware of is on like 10k ccu with 0,9 qptr. Like ive said i dont think it should be 10k, im not even thinking of 1k but stuck at 100 there is something off and i just want to figure out what it is.

The ccu during the peak of 700 ccu was on 1,4%. On 3% the game got 100-200 ccu right one week after initial ads campaign.

You are talking about addressing qptr, how would you do that? Are you guys tricking the people with bait thumbnails or something so they wont be like “ahh its this game, keep scrolling”?

My funnels are excellent, almost 82% of ALL joining players staying at least 5 minutes including interactions etc. Ive seen that way worse in my other games.

The other campaign was just a test to see if it changes anything by giving it some kind of signal but nothing. Getting almost all stats to green doesnt help, improving the analytics->home recommendations metrics didnt do anything for me. A new game logo and thumbnail brought me to 1,4% instead of 1% qptr → didnt worked as well, same ccu. Its like its hardlocked.

And since ive tried alot of things, improved alot of things and nothing worked out - im here. Hopefully to get some ideas/answers :stuck_out_tongue:

I appreciate your response though, thats how it works in theory. But in my case it doesnt on a live game.

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Hmm this is interesting, I guess it is different for different genres. when I got an obby game to 2.5k ccu all my benchmarks updated and it was comparing my game to steal a brainrot and 99 nights.

Shouldn’t you get more plays per impression if they are mostly shown to returning users? On my game the home rec play through rate for returning users is 10% but for new users it is around 5%. again this is from my own experience so it may be wrong

Your engagement and retention stats are definitely great, so I don’t think that is the reason why it is stagnating

Do you mind showing your “Unique users with impressions by source” and “new users funnel” tab in Acquisition? Is your impressions staying the same or continuously going down?

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UPDATE:

I have tried like 8 different Thumbnails now, including the old ones. None of them (no matter which i try) getting above 0.5% since a couple of days.

CCU still hardlocked around 100 (while QPTR went down alot). Those that join the game stay pretty good, it seems like its getting suggested to racing sim fans or something.

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Metrics keep getting better and QPTR goes down.

82% of all players who join the game, stay at least 5 minutes. I know that, because we giving out a Panda Egg after 5 minutes. And 82% of all joining players opening it. The game is fine, it keeps people engaged but something is broken with the recommendations i think.

2 Likes
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having the same issue with qptr holding me back..

retention & playtime are both great, 5m engagement funnel is >50%, other home rec signals are solid. tried 10+ thumbnails, can’t ever get my qptr above .6% (currently hovering at .4-.49%)…

home recs have been trending down for the past month or so, even though almost every stat(including qptr!!) has either held steady or increased.

it’s especially frustrating knowing that the last time i got my qptr to be atleast average in my benchmarks(.6%), home recs began to trend massively upward for a month. then as i got more home recs, my qptr drops, along with it my homerecs, & then im back in the hole i started in.

bluntly im just super lost as to what i can even do and feel like im just doomed to comm&test thumbnails for eternity

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2 Likes