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Comment by learc83 | Hacker News Reader

I think it might have something to do with a combination of free to play and no matchmaking.

Once a BR has saturated the market, the percentage of new to experienced players starts to drop. I think most players will reach a skill peak and the game starts to get harder faster than they are improving. This can be frustrating, and since newer BRs have a higher percentage of less skill players they feel easier. With no money barrier, the players switch.

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Matchmaking is a double edged sword. It makes the newer players feel more welcome, but it will make the dedicated players (who likely invest more $$) feel less rewarded.

I had written some comments similar to what you are saying. Getting into e.g. PUBG right now would be very difficult.

That makes a lot of sense. And even matchmaking, if implemented badly, won't help much: when matchmaking is based on monotonic point accumulation, players with sub-average skill growth will be pushed out. Likewise, if the matchmaking rank decays slower (or not at all) than actual skill, players who took a break will leave when they try to return.

> even matchmaking, if implemented badly, won't help much: when matchmaking is based on monotonic point accumulation

Do any (modern, popular) games implement this kind of matchmaking? I believe there's often a monotonically increasing 'rank' or 'level' displayed to the player, but I'd be surprised if any major games used this kind of score as the sole foundation for matchmaking.

That’s a pretty interesting theory that makes a lot of sense. I only casually play BR type games and this has certainly felt true for me.

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