Player Behavior reports and market data
Documents
Global trends – Insights from 3 billion mobile gamers
This analysis of mobile gaming industry performance, based on a benchmark of 60,000 games across three billion devices from mid-2017 to mid-2018, provides a comprehensive overview of global retention, engagement, and monetization trends.
- The mobile gaming market follows a power-law distribution where top-tier titles significantly outperform the broader industry in retention, engagement, and monetization.
- Median day-one retention is 25%, but top-performing titles achieve 40% or higher, with the performance gap widening to a 5% median retention rate by day seven.
- Genre selection dictates performance metrics: trivia and word games lead in retention, while casino and card games drive the longest session lengths, often exceeding 30 minutes.
User analysis for premium games in China
The premium games market in China has experienced significant growth, driven by an increasingly affluent young generation and a robust digital ecosystem.
- As of 2018, China’s Steam user base reached approximately 40 million, with active engagement levels currently exceeding those of the United States and Russia.
- Social players represent the largest market segment at 38%, prioritizing games that are trending within their peer groups to maintain social relevance.
- Streaming platforms are the primary discovery tool for Chinese gamers, functioning as a critical risk-mitigation step for evaluating gameplay before purchase.
What Gamee learned about hyper-casual games from 3 billion gameplays across 70 games
The analysis of over three billion gameplays across 70 hyper-casual titles reveals that social integration and platform context are primary drivers of engagement and retention.
- Implementing a unified meta-layer for progress, points, and tournaments across a portfolio of games can double engagement metrics compared to standalone titles.
- Increasing social density by facilitating direct connections between friends significantly improves both day-one and day-seven retention rates.
- Optimizing the timing of share prompts and providing meaningful incentives like high-score comparisons can increase organic sharing by 10% to 15%.
Leave Enough Room: Design that Supports Player Expression
Player expression serves as a critical design pillar that transforms games from passive experiences into participatory art forms.
- Design systems should prioritize player expression by providing tools that allow for multiple, non-prescriptive solutions rather than forcing players through rigid, bottlenecked paths.
- Effective game design relies on a three-part loop: avoiding prescriptive instructions, empowering players to generate unique gameplay data, and creating systems that dynamically respond to that data.
- Designers should utilize agnostic unit design, where game elements function as versatile tools or hazards that adapt to the player's specific context and goals.
Players Are People Too
Long-term success in the gaming industry depends on shifting the developer-player dynamic from a transactional relationship to a partnership.
- Studios can achieve long-term success by shifting from transactional player relationships to a partnership model that treats users as human beings rather than data points.
- The turnaround of the legacy title YoWorld demonstrates that prioritizing user-generated content and community feedback can effectively reverse product decline.
- Development priorities should be determined by synthesizing subjective community feedback with objective metrics like sales figures and participation rates to avoid relying on biased assumptions.
This is a Talk About Tutorials, Press A to Skip
The primary objective of this analysis is to define effective tutorial design in video games, arguing that the most successful instructional phases are those that are seamlessly integrated into the gameplay experience.
- Effective tutorial design prioritizes seamless integration into gameplay, replacing intrusive elements like pop-up windows and walls of text with organic, experience-based learning.
- Developers should leverage universal game literacy, such as color-coding for danger and established control schemes, to guide players intuitively without explicit instruction.
- Games like Half-Life 2 and the Super Mario series serve as benchmarks for success by introducing mechanics within safe, experimental environments that encourage organic discovery.
How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies
Effective game design prioritizes intuitive, seamless onboarding by integrating instructional elements directly into the core gameplay loop.
- Integrate instructional elements directly into the core gameplay loop to replace text-heavy tutorials, which disrupt immersion and feel like work.
- Use staggered pacing to introduce new mechanics only when they are immediately relevant to the player's progress.
- Leverage real-world analogies, such as plants as defensive towers, to reduce cognitive load by allowing players to apply existing knowledge to new mechanics.
The Catharsis of Doing - Designing Emotionally Intense Experiences - Extra Credits
The concept of catharsis in video games differs fundamentally from traditional media like film or literature, which rely on passive observation.
- Video games offer a 'catharsis of doing,' a unique form of emotional release derived from active participation and agency rather than the passive observation found in traditional media.
- The interactive nature of games allows players to process real-world frustrations and explore personal decision-making by confronting challenges and moral choices in a controlled environment.
- Because games require active effort, they carry an inherent risk of compounding existing stress, rage, or sadness if a player fails to achieve a desired victory or is troubled by their own in-game actions.
Making Your Games Better with Psychology and Playtesting, the Uncharted Way
Game design should shift its primary focus from the nebulous concept of immersion to the more precise psychological framework of attentional management.
- Designers should shift their focus from the abstract concept of immersion to the management of player attention, treating it as the primary currency of game design.
- To prevent cognitive exhaustion and vigilance fatigue, gameplay must be structured to alternate between high-focus, intense moments and low-stress periods of exploration.
- Developers can subtly guide player focus by leveraging biological principles such as foveal vision and saccadic eye movements through strategic use of lighting and visual composition.
Because Games Matter - MJ's Story: How Games Brought a Family Together - Extra Credits
Video games often face societal criticism as isolating distractions, yet they possess a unique capacity to foster familial connection and emotional support.
- Games serve as a critical medium for maintaining familial bonds during terminal health crises by providing asynchronous communication and distraction through mobile, word-based titles.
- Interactive media can bridge interpersonal gaps and resolve long-standing sibling conflicts by shifting dynamics from friction to collaborative, shared experiences.
- Motion-controlled gaming provides individuals with physical limitations the ability to engage in immersive, joyful activity that might otherwise be inaccessible.
Playing with Pride: When Game Culture and LGBTQ Culture Collide
The intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and gaming culture reveals a complex history of alienation transformed into a powerful medium for self-discovery and community building.
- LGBTQ players often use character creators as a safe space to explore gender identity, frequently projecting their own identities onto characters or utilizing non-human avatars to bypass rigid gender constraints.
- The gaming industry has historically been perceived as unwelcoming or hostile by LGBTQ individuals, leading many to abandon titles like World of Warcraft due to bullying or a lack of representation.
- Queer gamers are increasingly organizing into formal communities and physical meetups, such as the former Gamer X convention, to share resources and advocate for more inclusive game content.
Tutorials That Don't Talk Down To You - Context Sensitive Design - Extra Credits
Effective game design requires shifting focus from the screen to the player’s experience, particularly when implementing tutorials.
- Context-sensitive design improves player experience by delivering instructions only when a specific need is demonstrated, rather than forcing all players through redundant tutorials.
- Designers should implement trigger-based prompts that activate only when a player fails to utilize a specific mechanic, such as jumping or using equipment.
- Level design should focus on isolating individual mechanics to create controlled environments where designers can accurately identify and address player struggle points.