The goal of any operator is to fill every game of laser tag because each unused pack is revenue lost. This is fairly easy to accomplish on busy weekends, but it’s not so easy during the slower weekdays. After all, the average utilization rate for laser tag is 30%, so some of your games are bound to be empty or sparse during slow days. When you have games of only 4, or 5, or 6 players, how do you make sure they still get the full experience? This article reviews several ways to customize the laser tag experience for any size group.

Let’s say you have a 30 player laser tag system with a 4,000 square foot, multi-level arena. The size of this space works well when your games are full, but the arena can feel empty if you only have a few players. These customers paid for a fun, immersive game, so you need to make some adjustments to ensure they have an experience that’s just as good as your full games. Here are a few suggestions.

Isolate Playable Arena Space
What if you could magically shrink your arena when you have smaller games? Well, there’s a way to accomplish this without using magic! Section off parts of the arena to keep the players contained in a smaller area. For example, you could tell the players they have to stay up on the second level during the entire game. This significantly shrinks the size of the arena since second level ASA structures can only be 30% of the overall footprint. As you can imagine, 4 players in a 4,000 square foot arena means they would spend the entire game just trying to find one another. But when you shrink the playable space, players can spend more time tagging and less time searching.

Use Different Game Formats
If you have 5 players, a typical 2-team game probably doesn’t make sense. The teams will be unbalanced and the players won’t have very many targets (aka people) to tag. This is where you can flex the power of your laser tag equipment. Instead of this standard game, load up a different game format. One format that works really well for small groups is free-for-all. Instead of a player having only 2 other people to tag, they can now tag the other 4 players in the game. Free-for-all creates a balanced game experience that’s more interesting and fun for small groups.

Use Interactive Arena Components
Targets don’t have to be only people. Every laser tag equipment company offers interactive arena components. These are additional targets placed throughout the arena that players can tag. They are integrated into the arena props and themed pieces to create a seamless experience. In some cases, these components can tag the players back; it’s almost like adding more players to the game. You can blend these components with light and sound effects to really take the environment to the next level, which enhances the game experience for both large and small groups.

Conclusion
You’re going to have slow days with small groups in your laser tag games. There’s really no way to avoid this. If you can’t deliver a great experience to these small groups, then why would they ever come back and play again? Simply put, they won’t. So we believe in putting in the extra effort to make sure you provide a memorable experience in every game, for groups of every size. This effort will help ensure long-term success for your business.

The Customer Experience Matters: Learn how to create memorable laser tag experiences and increase revenue