I know the situation is pretty complicated, but if I was you I would change a lot of stuff of the game, mainly because roblox is probably not going to change anything.
So I really like your game but I see one thing that the algorithm might not like:
Monetization: Ok so this is quite complicated, but , one way you could make way more money could be adding lootboxes, I know no one likes them but you may not have a choice, or maybe packs of cosmetics, I would personally change the store and do the second one.
So many good posts here with great data. Somehow I missed this topic, but to summarize; everyone seeing a drop is more than likely the victim of the system spamming of bots to game the system. Right now it is too easy bot visits, likes, dislikes, etc. All this is probably the root if the issues presented here. The search algorithm is being crushed by the spammers. 
1 Like
The new algorithm makes it impossible to get a game popular.
1 Like
Does the algorithm take into consideration the differences between the retention rates of different platforms? Say a game has decent PC retention but poor mobile retention. Will the game be regularly shown to players on computer but not so much to mobile players, or will discovery for all enabled platforms be based on the total average retention?
2 Likes
This is another point that is important.
I have a sandbox tycoon game called Store Empire [ Tycoon ]. It blew up a couple years ago and has now settled at about 125 daily concurrent peaks. It should maybe show up 250th when you search “Tycoon”, no?
It actually shows up 1256th, behind games like this(a, b, c, d). All of these games were not updated this year, have 0 concurrents, and have terrible like ratings. This one is 250th. Why?
Edit: This game is 367th. It hasnt been updated in two years and literally does not work when you join it. Why is my game 800 slots lower?
14 Likes
I’ve noticed a very similar problem. Take the search “ghost” for example.
Doors does not really fit, but at least it’s a horror game and a very high-quality one at that. Specter and Specter 2 are my studio’s ghost-hunting games, so that’s accurate. But then look at the next few results. Games like “The Japenese Ghost (horror game)” which has an 18% like rating, no players, and hasn’t been updated since 2022, are showing up before games like Blair and The Mimic, which are high-quality, recently updated games, with significantly more players, that most definitely would provide Roblox with a lot more money and retain users better. And they still fit the search term.
Relying on an algorithm for 100% of discovery seems to be a surefire way to hide some of the best games on the platform behind pages of games that are… maybe not the best. This really just emphasizes the need for proper genre sorting, and maybe even more in-depth filtering than that (allowing developers to add filterable tags like “collaborative” or “open world”). This would help some of the high-quality older games survive, while still allowing newer experiences to find an audience through algorithmic sorts.
Until then, I think we’re going to keep having these issues. Algorithms are not good for stable careers.
6 Likes
Yeah, that is odd. The game developers hasn’t even taken the time to submit the age guidelines, which means it might be long forgotten. It doesn’t even show a list of the actual “Genre” we can pick for the games. What’s the point of putting your game into “horror” or “sci-fi” if players can’t even search for them that way. All I saw was “Top Earning” or “Popular Among Premium”. It seems that even DOORS 
is using “Adventure” instead of “Horror”, my guess is because it actually shows up as a category to browse through at least. 
I love seeing this:
Like I’m the one that is choosing to show my game to less prospective players. I hope my new users going down doesn’t lead to an endless cycle of my game being shown to less players
New player acquisition before and after the early May algorithm change.
5 Likes
Just adding myself to the long list of developers here who are being fucked by the algorithm.
I was a professional Roblox game developer for 5 years, but Roblox’s broken game discovery has forced me to stop developing full time and work as a minimum wage bartender to make end’s meet.
15 Likes
I think stories like @RitchUK’s here are gonna be quite common. I myself am also not a big shot developer, and although this algorithm change is (seemingly) not going to force me to get another job to support myself and significant other(s), it chews into my budget big time. I set up a buffer in my budget to handle my game or Roblox potentially going through rough patches that I have time to adapt to. I didn’t expect for a major algorithm change to yank my game down in mere weeks.
I always felt bad for YouTubers that had to deal with merciless algorithm changes that saw their views get halved or their videos made unmonetizable out of the blue and I was so happy and prideful that Roblox would never make a major change that would just knock the legs out of one’s games, but here we are.
I don’t know exactly how much more money Roblox is earning nor how much longer players are spending in games due to this change, but there is definitely a hidden cost to setting the standard that algorithms may change and your game(large or small, with good analytics or poor) may be stunted severely. Some prospect developers may not want to invest into developing games on Roblox if they know they may be fighting a future invisible change like this. Existing developers who would otherwise continue updating and releasing games might just have to look elsewhere for a more stable income.
This response from Roblox is super discouraging and concerning. It reads very corporate speak, like several people read over the message numerous times and spent more time carefully explaining their “vision” over considering the many developers that are being negatively affected right now by this change.
5 Likes
That is by far the worst advice you could give someone who might only be on their 1st or 2nd game.
Quantity shouldnt be greater than quality, though in this day and age it seems to be this way which in my opinion should change.
I’m in no way trying to attack people who make more games with lesser quality than one with greater but this system being beneficial to you is honestly baffling when it ignores most of the actually quality games out there.
I have seen so many titles with less than 100 players that should dominate the front page because of its quality gameplay and graphics that it’s not even funny anymore.
My support goes to all of you who struggle to keep players with ROBLOX’ ridiculous algorithm and I say we try to spread the message to fix this abomination of a system to be more fair to the new and inbetween developers instead of blindly catering to the already thriving.
If i’d have known this algorithm was this bad I wouldn’t have stuck in the time into my game but alas it’s already far enough to where i need to finish it because of the stuff promised.
Don’t make the mistake of putting all eggs in one basket and losing it all because of a system too stupid for its own good.
ROBLOX seems to be becoming a place for low effort titles to thrive while the innovative fall.
Again, not attacking you for succeeding in what you do but I highly disagree with it on many standings.
4 Likes
Instead of just spewing a bunch of information at us why not address the issue directly?
If you have power then you could have changed it but it seems like you at HQ don’t want that,
it seems to me that you people enjoy good games not getting what they deserve.
Don’t try to please us with a reply, fix the issue instead and keep quiet until it is fixed.
2 Likes
All of my KPIs are near the top of, or above, the benchmark KPIs that you have stated here. However my MAU has decreased by over 50% in the last month.
You are lying.
2 Likes
Just bring back the friend activity tab, it’s not that hard
This random text label doesn’t help developers or players in any way
3 Likes
Simple games like obbies and other clickbaity games are probably given less weight by the Roblox games which is better for the whole ecosystem as a whole.
Yes it might hurt those who make obby and/or clickbaity games but the benefits outweight the negatives.
3 Likes
I don’t think thats their goal. This is the top left game that shows up on my games page(and it shows up 5 times on the games page).
My game isn’t an obby or clickbaity and it received 38.4k new players in May(right after the algorithm change) as opposed to 77.8k in April and 60.9k in March.
2 Likes
Another thing to consider is that recent changes to Roblox has made it very unstable for the client. The decrease in players might be a combination of changes to the listing but also due to games crashing and keeping out potential players. I’ve seen games where the entire player list drops all at the same time (minus a few) and when you talk to those players (if they come back), they about 99% of time complain about Roblox crashing, especially on Mobile devices. I haven’t seen the Client stability discussed much in this topic, but it is something to consider and could be a hidden variable to the issue that everyone is seeing here.
I get the same “Insights” too, but the number one complaint from players is game stability for myself.
3 Likes
This isn’t the case, as I have explained before, other “clickybaity” games in our genre are receiving more players then they were before the algorithm change, and we’re receiving less. This is despite the fact that we have much greater analytics then they do, we should be promoted more, not them.
Imo clickbait games in general are bad practice since it’s usually the same gameplay loop copy pasted over and over like those obbies with a crazy stage count.
Would personally prefer unique games with different loops of gameplay get popular than 50 obbies.
not saying obbies ain’t fun, just ain’t as unique unless you put a twist on it like custom things such as portals or dashing from block to block.
In general I see roblox games being less unique with simulators having dominated the front page for years by now and obbies and tycoons still sticking dragging in players with the same gameplay just reskinned.
No offense to any obby devs that actually have unique stuff in their games, I just dont find the basic ones as interesting.
as for your game not doing well, let’s hope roblox sorts stuff out before the end of the year so we can all continue developing without fear of not being able to keep our players.
I haven’t experienced much of it myself yet as my titles aren’t out as of posting but from what I’m hearing I don’t want to experience growth to just lose or not even grow at all.
What you consider good/unique is entirely subjective and not relevant to the issue at hand. (You aren’t the demographic we’re aiming for so I don’t really care what you do/don’t like.) It doesn’t matter what you think is good or bad, games with better metrics should be promoted above all else. Why are we being demoted when we are at the top of our genre? Roblox is directing these players to worse games (by metrics alone) instead of ours. That doesn’t make business or logical sense.
2 Likes