On May 31, the Top Rated page was changed to show only a limited number of games to combat botting. Ever since then mid-sized games have been quietly removed and games with very low ratings (<60%) but large playerbases have started to pop up on the page.
To figure out which games were being removed, on July 6, I took a picture of the Top Rated page, then at the end of each day, I looked at which games had been removed. To clarify, “removed” in this case means games that are on the page one second, and disappear the next.
Based on the list, games with 1,000 to 5,000 players are the most likely to be removed, with the sole exception of Tower Defense Simulator. Because the largest games such as Bloxburg are unaffected, I believe this bug has largely gone unnoticed.
Edit: Added Bomb Simulator to the list
Edit 2: Well I figured out what was happening, according to this page all Sorts got a critieria to maintain a certain number of players or be delisted. I’m guessing Top Rated now has a hidden criteria to maintain at least 5,000 concurrent players or be removed.
The Top Rated section currently functions as a de facto Popular section. It is managed by the moderation team, who just grab games from the Popular section to put them back into Top Rated.
do they have to group and talk about their decisions related to putting a game on the top rated, which would make sense, if not then wouldn’t it be unfair advantage and practically free advertising for those games without having to invest in ads in the first place, and games listed under top rated will be kept alive whether players enjoy them or not.
EDIT: I guess being on front page is free advertising technically to lol
my other question is, what determines a top rated game, I’ve seen 2 - 4 games listed top rated the past 30 days with < 50% rating.
I can’t read minds, so I can’t exactly tell what they put into their determination. But all of them are extremely non-violent and are games for very young children.
Added Bomb Simulator (4.4k players) to the list. It looks like the only game left in the screenshot that had 1,000 to 5,000 players is Cook Burgers but that game has since gotten above 5,000 players.
Well it’s official, Top Rated has become another Popular sort. Now you need at least 5,000 players on your game to make it on the sort or be removed within a couple days. Really hoping someone would look into this, but it looks like very little attention is paid to sorts in general.
