Boost Mobile Game Retention with 5 Hacks

BOOST GAME RETENTION WITH

6 HACKS BACKED BY SCIENCE

WHEN IT COMES TO FREEMIUM,

GAME USER RETENTION IS KING

Use psychology to drive up

game retention

A game that monetises

well but only retains for

short periods may

generate revenue in the

short term...

But will burn through

users and fail long term.

On the

other hand...

Higher game retention will

lift you on Apple and

Google’s app store

rankings algorithm.

Bringing in more users in a

virtuous cycle.

Higher game

retention

=More In App

Purchases

1/ Emphasise investment

and progress

In mobile, this means

people will be more willing

to return to a game if they

perceive they have made

progress.

Example: Township

You begin with a basic city

up and running rather than

being asked to start it from

scratch.

Giving you the sense of

investment and ownership.

2/ Encourage collection

Humans have the desire to collect items

Increase mobile game

retention through the use of

collectible sets to complete

and achievements.

Encouraging users to stay

longer to finish a collection

they have started.

Example: Mystery Manor

3. Have specific calls-

to-action

In this study, researchers found

that adding a specific call to

action greatly increased the

amount of students getting their

tetanus shots.

The number of participants getting

vaccinated rose from 3.3% to an

impressive 33%.

Use push notifications

4/ Foster community

Human are hardwired to seek

out interaction and

relationships with others.

Facebook studies have shown

that users retain longer and

spend more when using a social

login to an app than not.

Include community

features

● Facebook page

● Social feedback

● “Popular with the community”

sections

● Commenting, sharing and following

Example: Candy Crush incorporates

cooperation and competition in its gameplay

5/ Add randomness

There’s a reasons casinos keep

sucking players back in.

Since the 1920s and the famous

experiments of B.F. Skinner,

science has shown a variable

reinforcement schedule (eg payoffs

or rewards, both physical and

psychological) can greatly help

reinforce behaviour patterns.

Adding some “luck” to your

app or game can help keep

users keeping coming back.

6/ Listen to why users

are dropping

Whether in the first day or

after the first year, users will

drop out.

Use your statistics package

(Flurry, Mixpanel etc)

to understand where the drops

occur.

And use an in-app prompts (polljoy).

It lets you directly ask for feedback

from the users just before the drop

points, analyse results and identify

what needs to be fixed.

It can also reward users for giving

the feedback.

t www.polljoy.com/blog

For more tips on how to improve your

Mobile app & game ranking and get

more 5 star reviews, follow our blog:

Confidential - polljoy, Inc - 2014 Learn more at polljoy.com

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