Am I playing this game wrong?

I've played about twenty games at this point, and I honestly don't see what the hype is all about, and I feel like I must not be playing the game correctly.

The way my games typically go is I jump out of the jet, spend 15-20 minutes collecting gear without seeing anybody, then pick off 1-3 people, then die to somebody I don't see. I've gotten rank 15 twice, one of those times with 3 kills, the other with 0 kills; a game this morning was rank 10 but I don't remember how many kills; rank 2 last night with 1 kill; and then my most recent game was rank 4 with 3 kills.

I feel like making it to these ranks consistently should make me an above average player, but most of the time I don't see anybody until there are only ~30 people remaining.