itch.io

Thank you for replying, I feel better knowing that this is a bug.

But what should I do if I've send a request to the support and waiting for more than one month for it's response?

Thank you again for the reply and for passing my ticket along.

I understand that itch.io does not guarantee any particular search ranking, and I also understand that the ranking system is complicated. However, I feel like my actual concern may have been misunderstood a little.

I'm not asking why my game isn't performing better, or why it isn't ranked near the top. I'm concerned because after the game came out of quarantine, its position in tag browsing changed very drastically and has stayed that way ever since.

If possible, could you please take another look at my replies further up in this thread, especially the ones under redonihunter's reply? I posted screenshots there showing what I'm talking about.

The main issue is:

1. My game receives almost no traffic from itch.io tag browsing.
2. Regardless of which relevant tags I use, the game consistently appears at or extremely close to the bottom of the results.
3. Before quarantine, it was around the top 50 under the furry tag. After quarantine, it dropped close to the bottom among 1000+ projects.
4. This change happened directly after the quarantine period.
5. Since then, I've released major updates, regularly published devlogs, continued improving the game's page, and continued receiving consistent traffic from Google, Yandex, social media, and other external sources.
6. Despite all of that, its position in tag browsing appears to have barely changed at all.

So when I'm told to focus on my game and audience instead of rankings, I'm a little confused, because that is exactly what I've been doing. The game is still receiving players from outside itch.io. What I'm trying to understand is why itch.io's own tag discovery appears to treat the project so differently since quarantine.

I don't expect updates, ratings, or external traffic to automatically put my game at the top, and I'm not asking for preferential treatment. But when an actively maintained project consistently appears below projects with only a handful of ratings and no updates for years, across essentially every relevant tag I check, I think it's reasonable for me to wonder whether something may still be affecting the project's discoverability after quarantine.

It has now also been about 36 days since I sent support ticket #381030, and about 7 days since your last reply here. I completely understand that support may be busy, but I would really appreciate it if someone could confirm whether the project has actually been checked for any indexing, ranking, or post-quarantine issue.

I'm mainly looking for confirmation that there isn't some technical limitation or flag still affecting the game. If everything has been checked and this is genuinely expected behavior, that's completely fine. I would just like to know that for certain.

Thank you again for your help and for taking the time to read this.

Thank you for your feedback!
I'm happy that you liked the game, but yeah, UI is not perfect indeed

I constantly think about changing it to something similar to the original NINAH game, but I always skip it and start working on the new content...

I'll make you better for sure, thank you again!

That's a fair point, and I agree that a single traffic spike shouldn't necessarily change a game's ranking.

What makes me think something else may be going on is the overall pattern.

Most of my traffic isn't actually coming from itch.io's internal discovery. It's coming from external search engines:

• Google: 28k visits 
• Yandex: 15k visits
• Devlogs and direct links also account for a significant amount of traffic.

Internal sources like tag browsing and the itch.io homepage make up only a relatively small portion of my visits.

Looking at the longer-term analytics, the game was steadily growing for months. Around the time it came out of quarantine (early June), the trend reversed and visibility through itch.io began declining. Since then, I've released two major updates with accompanying devlogs, but my position in tag browsing hasn't changed.

Before quarantine, the game ranked around the top 50 for the furry tag. Today it's near the bottom among 1000+ projects. That's the part I'm trying to understand.

I'm not claiming this is a bug or asking for preferential treatment. Again, I just want to understand whether coming out of quarantine can effectively reset or significantly affect a game's position in rankings and how can I go upper. Because for now, It seems like I'm doing something wrong and my actions have no effect.

Thank you very much for forwarding my ticket to the admins, I really appreciate your help.

I completely agree that advertising and bringing players to the game is my responsibility, and that's what I've been doing.

What confuses me is that the game's position in search and tag browsing doesn't seem to react even when it receives a significant amount of new traffic and engagement.

For example, a few days ago one of TikTok videos unexpectedly went viral and the game received almost 20,000 views in a single day (compared to the usual ~3,000). However, despite that spike, I couldn't observe any change in its position in search or tag listings, not even by a single position.

I'm not asking for preferential treatment or guaranteed visibility. I'm just trying to understand whether this behavior is expected, or if there's some other factor that determines search ranking that I'm overlooking.

Hello,

I'm looking for some clarification about how itch.io's search and tag ranking works, because I'm seeing behavior that I can't explain.

My game: https://goonerunleashed.itch.io/yes-i-am-a-furry

The game was quarantined for review and came out of quarantine around June 4th. Since then, I've noticed two things:

1. My weekly impressions dropped dramatically (from roughly 600k/week before to around 20–30k/week now).
2. More importantly, my game now appears extremely low in tag browsing and search results.

The game is:

• marked as Adult
• completely free (no donations)
• updated every 2-3 weeks
• accompanied by regular devlogs
• currently has 278 ratings with an average score of 4.46/5

The strange part is that the game appears to be indexed correctly, but it can be found if you know the exact title and its ranking seems unusually low.

For example:

• when browsing relevant tags, my game is almost always near the bottom of the results
• when searching for the title, I have to type at least "yes i a" before it appears, and even then it shows around 24th place behind many unrelated games.

I'm not asking for my game to be manually promoted or ranked higher. I'm simply trying to understand whether this behavior is expected after a game comes out of quarantine, or if there might be something affecting how my project is ranked.

I opened a support ticket about a month ago (#381030) but haven't received a response yet, so I thought I'd ask here in case someone can explain how the ranking system works or whether this is something that staff should look into.

Has anyone experienced something similar after being re-indexed?

Thank you.

У игры нет никакого установщика

Thank you! Fixed it

It repeats every day, or just sometimes?

It's actually I wani hug that gator 🥴

You can check all the events in the gallery menu, and the names of the events are kinda hints. And there's a guide in my discord channel, made by GoldBerg

Hello! You can find them in the fridge!

Yep bro, you need it 

Hello! Thank you, actually there're a a lot of different sounds, but they are kinda similar. But ofc, I would love to add more and more different sound 

I'm trying to figure that out as well. Waiting for the response from support

I try to include hints in the event titles

Thank you! I've fixed it already :>

很难说，目前我在添加中文时遇到了一些问题

You can join my Discord server! There's even the table made by GoonBerg, with all the events and how to get them! discord invite

Hello! Sadly, no. There's some limitations for the web versions and I cannot meet the requirements 

Lmao, wait you're right

I'm sorry I've forgot to add it here 

Hello! It is written in the changelog, that you have to enable it in the settings now lol

Thank you!

I've fixed it!

Fixed it!

Thank you!

Yes, you're right!

Hi! There's a limit on the number of files in the game, and since there are already over 1,000 files, I can't upload any more updates for the web version of the game. But you can still play the previous version online (I just added it)

You can try downloading apk directly from MEGA. I hope it would help...

I recommend you to scan your PC immediately, this thing looks off

There's no such a thing as installer

You've downloaded something different

Hello!
Are you trying to download it from this page or from the game's page?

No, it keeps crushing the game lol

She's at Patreon version for now. But next week I'll publish update with her here

Actually, that makes sense, thank you for the idea!

I'm not sure how to help, sorry

I didn't even know that you can run it on iOS (I've never made a port)

Peak pfp btw

I love you too, Luiggifunk23

Yeah sure!

I am hitting my 5th decade, have mercy on me

Hi, there's an anal scene right now (only 1), but ofc you'll se more of that in the future updates

Thank you! But no, if I'll stop I'll die