RTS games and shooter games like Quake ultimately have the same problem. The skill ceiling is very high compared to the average player base so you're always goi

RTS games and shooter games like Quake ultimately have the same problem. The skill ceiling is very high compared to the average player base so you're always going to wind up with a lot of people playing short term then moving on to something else. When you start losing players, the match quality goes down, which leads to longer matchmaking searches or unbalanced teams... Either outcome accelerates the process of losing players until the game only exists for the better players. At this point any new players are turned off by the skill level and matchmaking times by the players left. The last ditch attempt to save the game is making it free to play. This is the only way out of the last problem because you get a lot of new players for a minute... Usually this doesn't work unless you pull a FortNite and completely change the game mode when you go F2P.