Hi,
with Frontier Mode as an entry point and tradable rewards for playing the game, I expected that it would now be possible to attract new players to Splinterlands.
By that, I mean actively playing in Modern Format. In my opinion, this metric is the most important one for the future of the game.
So I took a look at how things looked in the respective top 100 rankings from last season. Truly active and ambitious players should easily make it into their respective top 100 right now.
In addition, the total number of battles fought by these players is 152,180. That would be over 10,000 per day if every player played exclusively against liquidity bots. If two players play against each other, each of their battle counters would increase by one. I can't estimate exactly how the distribution is, but it can be assumed that all top 100 players account for about half of all battles in Modern. This observation should therefore be very representative and meaningful.
So let's see how things look for the individual leagues based on joining date:
In Champion League we can't find new players :(
The Diamond Top 100 only has 97 players... but no new ones :(
Oh, here are the first new Summoners. But a really small amount :|
It's not getting better in Silver... :(
Here they are! :)
Since the Splinterlands team wants to be prudent with its available marketing resources, reaching out to guild leaders would be a smart move. On the one hand, this would allow feedback to be coordinated and channeled, and on the other hand, it would enable a more personal approach to former and passive players.
Accumulated, we could hope for an upward trend. :´)
Even though it is encouraging that many active players from the hype years of 2021 and 2022 are still around and have helped the game through difficult times, there is still a massive shortage of new players.
Very few people devote themselves to a game for more than 5 years. This does not necessarily have anything to do with the game. Life goes on. Good and bad events lead to changes in priorities over time. Unfortunately, I have also seen many people leave here. Statistically, the chance that another 2021 or earlier player will quit soon is not small. There are currently not enough new players to fill these gaps.
Considering that only a third of the main set, Conclave Arcana, remains for sale, that 100% of the mini set's revenue goes to the DAO, and that the next main set is not expected to arrive until the end of 2026 at the earliest, I do not foresee any regular sources of income for the team next year. It is difficult for me to imagine that another Hall of Legends would be as successful.
While the team keeps the existing player base happy with many improvements, it has also created an excellent onboarding experience and reintroduced rewards that have immediate value. The app also runs great.
With all this behind it, it's now time to focus on attracting new players! What does Splinterlands have to hide now?
Spread this great game all over the world!
Vonak!