Keep Your Players Coming Back: Introducing Onboarding Best Practices Part 2

Retention mechanics are presented as a core part of new player onboarding in top-grossing mobile games, based on GameRefinery's analysis of leading iOS titles across the US, Chinese, and Japanese markets. Published in May 2022 as the second installment of a three-part series, the piece examines how games give new players reasons to return after the first session, following a first part on storytelling and progression and ahead of a final installment on onboarding monetization.

The central data point is that daily mechanics such as free daily gifts and daily quests are more common among the top 100 grossing iOS games than among titles outside those rankings, a pattern that holds in all three markets. Live events show similar prevalence: nearly every top 100 game in each market runs some form of recurring or non-recurring event, including features aimed at newcomers such as new player tasks. The data comes from GameRefinery's SaaS platform, and the analysis is supported mainly by qualitative case examples rather than a formal survey.

Limited-time login calendars are highlighted as a common tool, often structured as eight-day sequences ending in a premium reward. Call of Duty: Mobile offers a rare Special Ops soldier as its final gift, Moonlight Blade grants a companion character, and PUBG Mobile lets players choose a weapon. Some games pair calendars with new player task systems that steer users through different modes. QQ Speed combines a login calendar with level and race-count tasks, while Garena Free Fire's Newbie Corner uses daily-only tasks to create urgency and increase time spent in game.

Social and playtime-based incentives are the final themes. QQ Dance rewards early friend-related actions, such as adding a friend or gifting flowers, and grants gifts at playtime milestones of 10, 30, and 60 minutes. The conclusion is that retention mechanics range from simple daily gifts to resource-heavy live events, and that offering valuable content to anticipate is what drives players back after the first login.