Roblox said it is launching thumbnail personalization to help creators attract more users by showing the most relevant thumbnail to each user on the Roblox home page.
While thumbnails are the tiny images that you tap to initiate a game play, it turns out that the image that is on that thumbnail is extremely important.
It turns out that personalizing a thumbnail is a really good way to draw in audiences for a game. Experiences with thumbnail personalization saw an average 8.5% increase in qualified play through rate (qPTR) with some even seeing a 50% increase, said Chen Zheng, senior director for product at Roblox, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“We have very encouraging data. One developer said this is game changer for them,” said Zheng. “Thumbnail personalization is really part of this strategy to help users better evaluate recommendations in front of them and make a more informed decision” about playing the game.
The thumbnails apply on mobile devices, where users can choose which games to play by looking at a page of thumbnails. On top of that, they can also choose to play a game on the PC or console devices in the same way, where visuals will draw in players.
How it works
To get the most out of thumbnail testing, developers need to keep multiple thumbnails active, instead of picking just one winner to let personalization adapt to changing user trends.
This is because Roblox’s thumbnail personalization system uses multi-arm bandit instead of the more common A/B testing, Zheng said.
An A/B test sets up two alternatives for users to choose and tests which one is more popular. While traditional A/B testing picks one winner, Roblox’s mu …