Hey everyone,
I recently released an asymmetric survival game called No One Leaves the Woods , and I’m having a hard time understanding the analytics I’m seeing.
The basic gameplay is Farmers vs. Beast . Farmers have to gather resources, build defenses/farms and survive, while one player becomes the Beast and hunts them.
The confusing part is that the feedback I get from actual players is generally really positive.
I’ve watched random players stay for multiple rounds, I’ve seen friend groups playing together for hours, and I have some players who come back almost every day. I’ve even seen individual players put a pretty ridiculous amount of time into the game already.
When I watch populated servers, it genuinely looks like people are having fun.
But then I look at the overall analytics and they tell a completely different story.
Some of my current/ recent numbers are roughly:
- Average session time: varies a lot depending on traffic, around 5–14 minutes
- D1 retention: only around 3–4%
- New-player first-session retention is weak
- A significant amount of players leave before really getting into a round
- Home recommendation performance hasn’t been strong enough for Roblox to meaningfully push the game
A lot of my traffic has also come from Sponsored Ads, and I’ve noticed those players seem to leave considerably faster than the players I get organically.
This is what I’m struggling to understand:
How can a game have a small group of players who seem extremely engaged while the average new player performs this badly?
I’m starting to wonder if the core game itself isn’t actually the problem, but rather the first 1–3 minutes / onboarding / matchmaking experience .
Because once I see someone actually understand the game and start playing with other people, they often stay for several rounds.
I’d really appreciate feedback from developers who have dealt with something similar.
If possible, I’d especially like feedback on:
- Would you keep playing after your first round? Why/why not?
- At what exact moment would you personally consider leaving?
- Is the core loop actually fun, or am I being misled by a small group of highly engaged players?
- Does the game take too long before a new player understands what they’re supposed to do?
- Is there something obvious in the first few minutes that could explain such low D1 retention?
I’m not really looking for compliments about the map/models/UI. I’m trying to figure out why people are leaving .
Game: No One Leaves the Woods
Feel free to be harsh. If something is boring, confusing, frustrating, or makes you want to leave, I’d rather know exactly what it is.
Thanks!
