What Fortnite Can Learn from Roblox's Discovery Algorithm
- Stephen Dypiangco
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
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By Hari Nair
A New Era of Discovery: From Content to Connection
Roblox’s recent discovery algorithm update isn’t merely a tweak to recommendations—it's a significant strategic shift toward social engagement. While prior models focused primarily on individual engagement and monetization, Roblox’s latest update prioritizes "Intentional Co-Play," rewarding games that successfully connect friends for meaningful shared experiences.
For platforms like Fortnite Creative—already robust in user-generated content but not yet fully embracing social interaction as a discovery cornerstone—this presents a compelling blueprint. Below, we explore Roblox’s successes, outline Fortnite’s opportunities, and offer tailored recommendations for platforms aiming to stay competitive in the fast-paced UGC landscape.
What Roblox is Doing Right: A Social-First Discovery Model
Roblox’s new "Recommended For You" algorithm retains core engagement signals—like Qualified Play-Through Rate (qPTR), 7-Day Playtime, and Robux Spend—but introduces a new noteworthy social dimension: 7-Day Intentional Co-Play Days per User.
According to Roblox:
"Users who play more frequently, spend more often, and intentionally co-play with friends have higher long-term retention."
This social-driven strategy has tangible results. Games like Dead Rails, a Wild West zombie survival experience, leverage social mechanics and influencer coverage to skyrocket in popularity. Roblox’s algorithm amplified its reach because of its strong co-play signals, making it one of the platform’s standout hits.
Roblox's deliberate pivot underscores one clear principle: social-first games grow faster and last longer.
Five Opportunity Areas for Fortnite Creative
Fortnite Creative already delivers rich multiplayer experiences and robust user-generated content. However, Roblox's latest approach highlights specific opportunities for Epic Games to deepen its social ecosystem.
1. Social-Driven Discovery
What Fortnite is doing: Fortnite currently highlights experiences based on general engagement metrics—player count, retention, and overall popularity.
What Fortnite could do: Explicitly reward experiences where friends frequently join and engage together, similar to Roblox’s intentional co-play metric.
Actionable recommendation:
Introduce "Played with Friends" as a significant algorithmic signal, prioritizing experiences that consistently have groups of friends playing for extended sessions.
2. Friend Invitations & Group Sessions
What Fortnite is doing: Players can invite friends, but the process can be cumbersome or feel disconnected, particularly within Creative islands.
What Fortnite could do: Streamline invitations and group formations to reduce friction, mirroring Roblox’s encouragement of developer-integrated invite prompts and private servers.
Actionable recommendation: Implement intuitive, embedded "Invite Friends" prompts at strategic moments—like post-match screens or lobby downtime.
3. Enhanced Creator Analytics
What Fortnite is doing: Provides creators with engagement and retention metrics, but currently lacks detailed social engagement insights.
What Fortnite could do: Offer creators analytics that track deeper social behaviors, similar to Roblox’s new Home Recommendations Analytics Dashboard, highlighting friend-invite frequencies, group session durations, and repeat co-play rates.
Actionable recommendation: Introduce creator-facing analytics dashboards explicitly designed around social interaction metrics, enabling data-driven optimizations for community-building.
4. Spotlighting Smaller, Socially Engaging Experiences
What Fortnite is doing: Currently, visibility heavily favors high-volume experiences or those manually curated by Epic Games editors.
What Fortnite could do: Adopt a per-user engagement model similar to Roblox’s, where niche experiences with intense social engagement can outperform larger but less sticky games.
Actionable recommendation: Regularly curate and prominently feature a "Small but Social" or "Friends' Favorites" shelf, showcasing games with high intentional co-play, even if overall player volume is modest.
5. Promoting Balanced, Sustainable Play
What Fortnite is doing: Fortnite’s algorithm does not explicitly limit recommendations based on session duration.
What Fortnite could do: Incorporate Roblox’s safeguard of capping algorithmic rewards after extended daily play sessions (Roblox caps at 60 minutes per user, per experience daily), encouraging balanced engagement rather than endless play loops.
Actionable recommendation: Integrate algorithmic down-weighting after prolonged playtime thresholds to prioritize session quality over sheer length.
Potential Shortcomings of Roblox’s Model
While Roblox’s social-first approach is innovative, it isn't without trade-offs:
Solo/Narrative Games Could Suffer: Games tailored for individual or narrative experiences might lose visibility due to inherently lower social metrics.
Risk of Superficial Social Engagements: Developers might optimize for quick, shallow interactions rather than meaningful community-building.
Challenges for New Developers: New creators without existing player bases might struggle to gain traction without initial social momentum.
These aren’t arguments against Roblox’s approach but are cautionary reminders to balance social signals with diverse engagement metrics.
Strategic Takeaways for Platforms and Publishers
The broader lesson from Roblox’s shift is straightforward yet profound: players come for the content, but they stay for the community.
For Fortnite and other UGC gaming platforms, success lies in shifting from engagement-at-any-cost to a more nuanced, connection-first model. This requires providing creators with better social metrics, frictionless friend-invitation tools, and recognition for games that build lasting community hubs.
Social play isn't just another metric—it’s a foundational driver for platform stickiness and sustained growth.
Platforms embracing this connection-first mindset—and constructing algorithmic and analytical infrastructure around it—will define the next evolution of the UGC gaming economy.
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