• Playtest Pixie Chatbot

When deciding how many participants to include in a playtest or survey for a game, several factors should be considered.

For surveys, it’s important to define both the target audience and the appropriate sample size. Ideally, participants should represent the game’s intended audience or a relevant subset of it. Depending on your research goals, the sample might include players with specific characteristics. Trying to reach everyone is unnecessary and unrealistic—but if your sampling method systematically excludes certain groups, you risk introducing coverage error.

While random sampling is the gold standard in scientific research, it’s often impractical in game user research, which tends to focus on smaller, more defined populations—the player base. In these cases, non-probability sampling methods are typically acceptable, including:

• Volunteer opt-in panels – players who willingly sign up for research.
• Self-selected surveys – links shared on forums, Discord, or social media.
• Convenience sampling – testers from easily accessible groups like coworkers, friends, or students.

These approaches are easier to implement but can introduce selection bias, making results less generalizable. Still, frequent playtesting—even with imperfect samples—is usually better than waiting for an ideal one. In many cases, testing regularly with internal team members or readily available participants offers valuable insights for small design decisions and helps drive iterative improvements over time.

Resources:

Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users

Tools:

Sample Size Calculator - Qualtrics

Literature:

Drachen, Anders, Pejman Mirza‑Babaei, and Lennart E. Nacke, editors. Games User Research. Oxford University Press, 2018. download.e-bookshelf.de+14pure.york.ac.uk+14amazon.com+14