If there is one aspect of Roblox I can confidently say has regressed significantly over the years, it is the discoverability.
As a developer who has been on the platform since 2008, and over the years have made games that reached the very top of the games page multiple times, the process of getting there has become near impossible in modern day.
Of course, you can argue that there’s more competition, more games, more of an audience…
- But the discoverability makes zero sense.
- The discover page genres make no sense.
- The prioritization of certain genres while excluding others on the home page makes no sense.
- The algorithm (seems) to make no sense.
It truly feels like today’s chances of your game going ‘viral’ is based on the draw of a card.
- The discover page categories make no sense:
In prior eras of the discover page, the discover page categories made sense and worked as their title implied. The game that possessed the most amount of concurrent players at the time was at the top of the ‘Popular’ category, the second placed at number two, etc. etc. The current ‘Popular’ category does not do that.
For example, why is this game, “Livetopia”, which has over 40k+ concurrent users in this screenshot, behind countless games that have less than 10k+ concurrent? Some even as low as 1-4k? (note: had to zoom out just to get a picture of the top to bottom)
Why is this game, specifically, being punished with (poorer) discovery when it is outperforming majority of games that are placed in front of it? Is this not the Popular category? With 40k players, shouldn’t this be near the top? Popular category makes zero sense, and there is no longer an incentive to try and bring a lot of players into your game in hopes to make it onto ‘Popular’, because apparently even with 40k players, it guarantees nothing.
Now let’s look at the ‘Top Rated’ category, which is, based on the name, implied to be a sort of the top rated by game rating. So you should expect to see the top around 90%+, some 80%, maybe occasionally some 70%.
Why is a game with less than 60% rating even being algorithmically placed this high up on Top Rated? Why is it being given priority over games that have 90%+?!
If you scroll down further onto Top Rated, you will find tons of fairly high CCU games with 80-90%+ approval ratings that, for some reason, are punished placement wise. You will also see a plethora of games that do not fit the category ‘Top Rated’ that are prioritized higher than what is actually, well, top rated.
I could go on, but for the sake of post length, I’m going to address the other issues I see with discoverability. But to sum up point number 1, there is zero incentive for developers. There is no accurate placements of “Popular” or “Top Rated”. You have zero incentive to create a highly rated, quality game because you are going to be outplaced by games that have far lower ratings.
- The prioritization of certain genres while excluding others on the home page makes no sense:
Why are such niche genres consistently promoted on home pages? Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy for the developers who create games that fit niche genres, and I think they deserve to be promoted. The key term here is consistently promoted. There’s little to no cycling of genres on the home page. It’s always the same genres: “Platform Obby”, “Real-World Roleplay”, “Idle Games”. I 100% believe these should be promoted occasionally, but they are consistently promoted on the home page and other games are left in the dust. A much more optimal solution would be consistently cycling these genres, and bringing in others, maybe daily or even weekly.
Furthermore, the amount of games presented in these genres are unnecessarily lacking while the real supply is great, and rarely ever do new games get added to them.
For example: Why are there only four games under this category? Getting any of those two spaces would help out any developer. There are TONS of Real World Roleplay games. So why only four?
- Conclusion: The algorithm (seems) to make no sense.
To sum it up, if your game explodes out of nowhere, majority of developers will still never see the “Up-And-Coming” sort placement even if they make the requirements. If you worked very hard and delivered a top quality game that thousands of people love, giving you a 90%+ game rating, majority of developers will be punished and placed far below games that have far poorer reception. If your game is the most popular game on Roblox at a certain time, you’re not even guaranteed the top slot of the ‘Popular’ category.
As developers, we see these sorts and think of them as a ‘goal’. When you look at the ‘Popular’ category, you think, “Okay, if I can make my game popular, it can gain traction and move up the charts” (like the old discovery system). Instead, we are resorting to pouring millions of robux into sponsored ads that have been absolutely slaughtered in impact in recent times and paying content creators in hopes their coverage will make the Roblox algorithm pull us out of the bunch when majority of devs are far qualified yet unfairly treated. Big YouTube stars and content creators should compliment growth that had already occurred naturally, not be the only potential chance of going viral initially because the algorithm itself is so poorly performing and has unfeasible barriers of entry.
The discovery page has regressed significantly, there is no ‘pathway’ to the top anymore unless you’re lucky. It does not help when our options of marketing have been significantly impacted as well, almost worthless.
Edit: typo fix - and further comment: the original ‘Popular’ game discovery mechanic (from years ago) worked well because you were rewarded with a spike in players. Games would climb to the front page because as they boosted in player count, they were “moving up the charts” → more players find it, are intrigued, play → move up charts again → repeat. This whole ‘cycle/random assortment’ system for the “Popular” sort stagnates growth and discourages organic growth.
