Are Killer mains Actually dropping out?
People on these forums and Reddit are often seen complaining that killer mains are giving up and dropping out, which is increasing queue times, apparently ever since SBMM was released, and even more after the Hour of the Witch (boons) Update.
Personally, I don't really think that's the case, because honestly I believe the reason for longer queues has more to due with how the SBMM system is matching up players, and not for lack of players. Still, this game has been bleeding players on the steam charts since August, totaling about 18,000+ dropping off between August and the end of December last year, and lowering the average players online from 51k to around 40k per day for just this last month.
What I would be interested in seeing more than anything, is if the complaints that killers are dropping out is substantiated or not. Anyone else want to see a statistic sheet that shows the Avg Killer vs. Avg Survivor population vs. Overall player avg ever since SBMM was released? It would also be nice to see how many players switched roles over that same period of time as well, but that might be asking too much.
I'm betting the statistic will show that, No, killers aren't dropping out anymore than survivors, and that it's only the general population of players that are lowering due to either the seasonal average or if any recent updates have had a negative impact on the game experience overall.
Hopefully the devs already have a few statistic sheets like that, are already working on solutions to stop this bleed asap, and get the games population health back up to where it was.
Either way, It's a statistic I'd love to see to put an end to all of these complaints once and for all. Even more than that, the devs giving us that statistic through their transparency of the issue, would also reassure us, the players, that the devs know where the problems lie and are working hard to fix it.
Would Anyone else be interested in this?
Comments
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We have no real way to know because we don't know how SBMM exactly works. But there's a LOT of anecdotal evidence on this forum alone of killers becoming frustrating and quitting.
Are these killers ACTUALLY quitting? I suppose we can't say for 100%. And a longer queue for survivors, while being a decent indicator, isn't necessarily killers leaving (one of those "Correlation is not Causation" kind of things).
But without being able to access the data that presumably BHVR has access to, all we can do is take the evidence we do have (longer survivor queue times combined with killers stating that they're done playing killer and/or quitting the game entirely) and make some educated guesses.
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I'd always be interested in seeing the data for the ratios, but I'm also expecting the same thing you are - the claims of "killers are quitting" are almost certainly overblown every time they crop up. The complaints are often legitimate, but people don't stop playing the game, they just get angrier while doing it.
I do believe the queue times are a fairly accurate reflection of how many people are playing each side without too much interference from SBMM, but queue times have been stupidly long for survivors at night ever since I started playing, and that's been nearly a year now. I've only seen it change in a meaningful way when a new chapter is released, or if there's an event that noticeably favors playing killer.
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I play like 50% less time overall and a lot more survivor. But well, that's just me
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I'm basically done until they fix Circle Of OPealing and remove the ability for people on both sides to cheat with stretched res.
Until those 2 changes happen, I'm voting with my wallet; no DLC, no cosmetics, no battle pass, and basically not playing.
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The "I'm quitting" killer main posts are just threats directly towards the devs. "Look devs, Im quitting. The game is unfair, survivor bad"
And 9/10 still playing.
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I don't think so. I actually just became a killer main the other day because I finally realized how good killers have it. Not even joking.
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Usually the side with the longer queues is being played to much. So killers having instant lobbies while survivors have to wait somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes suggests a shortage of killers.
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Well I personally added to the killer player pool since I don't want to wait 10 minutes for games. But even then I can't do it some days and I just put up with the stupidly long survivor queues. The queues are the worst they have been for years for me and the only reason would be not enough killers as matchmaking is all over the place as if MMR doesn't exist
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I think killers are dropping out.
This is my own experience so take it for what it is. I have been playing since 2018 when Playstation gave the game out for free.
In the evenings Killer is instant and survivor would take about 10 to 15 minutes. When I had a chance to play during the day survivor queue during the day was about one minute and I couldn't play killer because I would get board waiting. The queue times would switch around the 6 or 7 at night.
Since boons came out I can get a killer match in seconds any time of the day.
Now lately I've hear more and more survivors complain about how long they have to wait for a match, but none of them seem willing to switch to killer to help out these longer queue times. Now why is that?
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Honestly I see more "Queue times are a nightmare" and "Where are all the killers?" posts than I see the "I quit, try to change my mind" ones. Either way, while this game does have a problem with its playerbase dropping, I don't believe any side of the rolls is dropping out more than the other.
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Just wait to reach a high SBMM.
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You just became. Youll see in couple o weeks :)
For killer side is the current meta most annoying. Especially knowing, there is always a DH. And when you see a SB or lithe, it brings tears to your eyes
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It could also show a shortage of killers in your server that are around the same SBMM ranking as you. Streamers themselves have noticed that the higher the SBMM rating they reach, the longer their queue times are getting because of the fewer the players are available at their level.
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I actually started out in high MMR cuz it had data on me from before SBMM where I could 4K every game as Clown, so when I finally came back every survivor was kicking my ass but I've slowly gotten less rusty and when I lose a game I know it was because something I did, not because of survivor BS.
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So, you're quitting forever.
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i cant speak for others, but i can assure you that i, as a Killermain, quit in August when they released MMR.
it was supposed to just be a bit of a break at first until i got the motivation to play this game back and ended with me uninstalling the game in December after literally not touching it, nor wanting to, ever since i started that break.
and yes, the primary reason for that was the introduction of the MMR system (though more things kept comming that drove me away further afterwards (NFT controversy, DDOS attacks, the cheater issue, boon perks and the Deathslinger gutting)).
of course that covers just me, but if a game loses 18% of its playerbase in a single month (and has failed to recover from that loss ever since), then that suggests that something has happened in this month that a LOT of people were not happy with.
regardless of whether that may have been more killer or more survivor players, this should be a huge red flag to BHVR and it astounds me how they have kept doubling down on that decision ever since - especially since, from what i experienced, a vast majority of the people that didnt quit over it also dont like it.
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If the devs never wise up; yes.
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Personally I don't"quit" I take really really long breaks.
When I quit a game I don't return.
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The other day I played my 3rd killer game ever and it matched me against flashlights and purple meta full loadouts. I had no add-ons, no offerings, and a single yellow perk.
Yeah I got stuck in that game because they wouldn't finish gens.
With matchmaking like that, I don't blame people for leaving.
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I already replied this to @Tsulan above, but Like I said there, SBMM tries hard to match players of similar skill level, and if there's a shortage of them at your current skill level, then it's gonna increase your queue times while it searches for the next best alternative that is closest to your level and available to play. Killers do have shorter queue times than survivors but that's because the amount of players on the survivor side typically outnumber the killers by around 28% as of the last statistic I saw on that, I want to say... before Trickster(?) came out... maybe earlier, I'm not sure. Either way, fewer players in one role means more waiting time for the other, and naturally with survivors outnumbering killers, those kinds of wait times can be expected, especially in the evening hours.
Add in how SBMM matches players, and you get a pretty good idea of why queue times seem to be increasing, hell even streamers have noted that the higher they get in SBMM ranking, the longer their wait times, so I feel that's more likely the case, rather than killers actually dropping out.
Edit: note that I said "SBMM Tries" not indicating that it actually succeeds most of the time, just that it makes an attempt to judge where we are "skill-wise" and match us up accordingly.
Post edited by TWiXT on0 -
Most of my old friends that used to play dbd from long ago like me, don't play it anymore. The only people i see today is new players that mostly play swf and killer very casually.
The main reason of why we stopped to play was because the devs failed to refresh the game and give it new modes or big fun changes, they are stubborn and don't want to change the boring core mechanics. After playing for thousands of hours you get bored of the same over and over. The boons, validations and all that crap was just the cherry in top of the cake to say "ok until here".
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Nobody knows.
I will say that my queue times on killer have been literally near-instant recently, while my survivor queues are long enough for me to watch half an episode of Bob's Burgers.
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People have the tendency to play the power role.
Anyway, with the amount of survivors that have a long queues, all having the same mmr rating sounds... weird.
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I can understand that sentiment, and you have my sympathy... the 2nd half of last year has been pretty rough for the game overall, starting with the colossal screw up with the RE chapter release. It's not been very kind on us, but I am happy that they buffed the hell out of my Go-To girl (plague) right before they released the boons, making her a 1 killer hard counter for them, and so it hasn't been as bad for my play experience as others.
Still, the game is losing players, and I hope the devs do something about it asap. I'm also not as "astounded" as you about the devs doubling down on SBMM, mainly because it took them a year and a half of development, and a whole lot of time and money. They really want to see it work to improve the overall game experience, and are hoping they didn't waste their efforts on it, which is understandable. The only problem with that mentality, is that they also aren't doing much about it fast enough to appease their player base. This is something I believe they've realized and are working hard on fixing.
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Has a main killer with more than 3k hours i am not having fun since MMR got introduce and it got even worst since the boons totems got introduce has such... In every session i reached RANK/GRADE 1 Killer, but know with the state of the game in the moment like, fast trials matches because of the gen rush etc, the game for me just got alot bored... I am not playing DBD like 2 months... I came back yesterday and i still got fast games with 3 hooks and 1 gen left in 7 minutes or less... Survivors still saying the famous words " GET BETTER "... And i think to myself how can i improve and be better when i have fast games... I just can t... This is my personal opinion of course but i bet that there is more people thinking that way...
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I don't think it's "weird" to believe that the majority of players (survivors) are ranking up in SBMM faster than the minority (Killers), and are finding themselves at a level where there are plenty of players like them, but only a fraction of their oppositions population can compete. This is also why we get the random discrepancies in player skill levels, wherein a relatively new killer, or one that's low-mid range in skill, will get paired with an SWF high SBMM Bully squad decked out with all meta builds and items. SBMM is searching for killers of that teams level, and if none are available, it looks for players in the next ranking down, and repeats until it finds someone. Though these instances are more rare than they were before SBMM came out, they still happen due to the new match making algorithms.
It's Frustrating I know, but also makes sense. Add in the time of day, and you get a clearer perspective as well, since there are overall less players on both sides in the evening hours vs. mid day, and their skill levels vary greatly since SBMM is basically pairing them with "Whoever's Available". A Streamer (Tru3) recently did an experiment to see if there was a difference in skill between those he's matched up with in the mid day vs. evening, and the results were pretty concrete to say the least.
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I play less in general overall. But I play killer a lot more now when I do actually play.
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I feel like they are on my server. I used to be able to get survivor matches after work in about 1-2 minutes tops, it now takes about 5-10 once I get home.
Whether or not they are quitting elsewhere or are all using VPN to change servers I have no clue. All I know is I used to play some survivor and wait till after 6pm to play killer. Now I can really only play survivor on the weekend unless I'm willing to wait.
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I think its not the sbmm that push the killer away but the CoH being a problem and removing the fun playstyle of killer. You can see a massive drop of player in october just when boon got release and you can see when they nerf DS to the way it is now you have an increase in the player base. So im a strong believer that its not the sbmm that push people away but the lack balance.
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Haven't touched killer since first week of Artist. I used to play several hours of killer per day
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I used to play 6 or 7 rounds a night as killer and much more on weekends but I might once or twice now and that’s for both sides.
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But you realize, that sbmmr goes up and down depending on survivors escaping or dying. So survivors ranking up more than killers means, that survivors escape far more often than killers get kills.
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Idk losing 10k players on steam alone seems evidence enough on how queue times are being affected.
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That is only a scare tactic. Survivors are dropping way more than killers. Game is simply not fun for the survivor side because of lack of options. The truth is, if you are not on a team that are like gods, the killer will win. That doesn't fun to me.
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Than why are survivor queues so long and killer queues are insanely fast?
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And as of the last Killer performance statistics, it averaged out that in all of the games the killers were killing 50% of survivors overall (nurse and trickster's below avg performance really dropped that average down). Killers gain 20 points towards their rating per kill, but lose 20 points per escape, while survivors lose 20 points when sacrificed, but gain 20 when they escape. With the overall average resulting in what is essentially 2 players escaping per match, the killers are stuck at no gain or drop in rank while half of the survivors are ranking up. Add in that survivors outnumber killers overall, and you get the majority earning higher SBMM than the minority. So yeah...
Here's a link to those statistics:
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That could be a server matchmaking problem. Even if there was a lack of killers it doesn't mean it is a weak role.
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When was the last time you played killer? I'm just curious.
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No, but it is a sizeable chunk of the PC player base, and I would love to see the overall drop rate for the entire player base regardless of platform as well. It might also be nice to see how many players are participating in cross play as well to get a better idea of how many players at a time are available to play with on each platform.
The statistics I dropped for @Tsulan doesn't support that claim, but then again we all know you @Sluzzy , while we mostly find it funny how much of a zealot you are for the survivor side and how much you love to play the "Victim" card, it getting old, so please stop trying to derail this conversation with your biased diatribe, and either actually get on board or get out.
Also the most recent kill statistics don't support your claim that killer wins more than survivors that aren't "Gods". If that were true, than 50% of the survivors would be in your "God" range. Of course that was only as of last September, so things may have changed, but I doubt its changed much. I think it would be nice to get the latest kill statistics as of the mid chapter patch as well, just to see if you're vindicated in this claim or not.
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You get people who constantly claim that they somehow have instant survivor queues yet long killer queues. I have no clue if they are lying, or if it's just something to do with region or something.
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Region, time of day, and matchmaking rank all affect queue times. Most people don't bother to mention any of that stuff when talking about it, though.
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well, I've been trying to, but really I think it would be better just to get some actual statistics from the devs on the matter, especially concerning whether or not killers are actually dropping off or changing sides more than survivors. I think that would ease people's minds over it if we all knew where the game stands as far as the drop rate is going, and whether or not SBMM is to blame, or any of the other changes made through the updates these past few months.
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I’m sure some of the posts are out of frustration but people do quit games all the time and it’s clear that many killers are unhappy.
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Thats the previous One what about the new One ?
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"so please stop trying to derail this conversation with your biased diatribe, and either actually get on board or get out."
Not getting on board with the "killer is weak and powerless". It could be getting old hearing how weak killers are when in fact they are overpowered in regular matches. I will say this again in a respectable manner: "Killers are not supposed to win every single game"
If killer mains played well, they would win an overwhelming majority of the time. It's been proven countless times.
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20 percent decrease in player count on steam since SBMM, I'd say killers ARE quitting.
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I'm not saying that the killers aren't unhappy with what's been going on with the game these past few months, but I would like to see statistics that support or defeat the claim that killers are dropping out in droves, so that we all know where the devs are focusing their attention to fix the issue. Wouldn't you?
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There isn't a new one that I know of, do you know of one released in the last dev updates that I missed? Either way, whether we have one or not, I'd still like to see it.
This hasn't been about how strong or weak either side claims to be, and has always been about whether or not the claims on these forums and reddit, regarding the killers drop rate, are true. All I'm interested in is getting those statistics from the devs, so that we all will have a better understanding of why people have been dropping the game these past few months and if there is any disparity between the roles.
Don't try to make this about whether "Killers are not supposed to win every game" or not. The whole reason I brought up the kill rate statistics, was to prove that 50% of the survivors are ranking up in SBMM faster than the killers, which is likely causing SBMM to have a harder time finding killers of similar level in the higher SBMM tiers, resulting in longer queue times for half of the survivor player base.
Again, get on board with the conversation, stop trying to derail it from the topic to express your own hatred towards the killer role, and play your infamous "victim" card, or get out. Respectfully, it's not funny anymore, so please knock it off.
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For another anecdote, I quit over hackers making it legitimately unsafe to play the game as killer, though I had been playing less and less over time.
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It does, but I'd like to know what region this is where people have instant survivor queues. I've seen some state it's at all hours, and that just doesn't make much sense.
My survivor queues at the "good hours for survivor queues" are also noticably longer than they were 6 months ago. Went from 5 second waits at 4 am to near a minute.
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