The visibility of a laser also depends much of the color of the object it hits. On a deep black object you may even struggle to see it at night, in a normal street light environment.
But they are meant for use at close range anyway. Since the laser does not curve down like a bullet does, aiming turns into guess work at longer distances. And you don't want to zero it for long range, since you know it's often hard to see there. So 10, max 15 meters is a good distance for a laser, and that covers most self defense situations.