Increase Player Retention in Mobile Gaming

​Churn is a universal problem for mobile gaming companies, but by learning from your churn data, you can increase player retention to help grow and scale your gaming business. You may never get your churn rate to zero, however there are various ways in which you can reduce it and retain players, but where do you start?

Users abandon apps all the time, and there are various reasons why this happens, and we know how deeply user churn can impact your business, but it is important to look at the churn rate data that you have access to, and put that knowledge toward a user retention strategy. Monitoring your churn rate will help you narrow in on your games weaknesses, before they turn into bigger problems which potentially could drive your churn rate in the wrong direction. 

What is churn rate? The churn rate explains how many players leave and don’t come back to the game. It measures how many players have either uninstalled your game, or the number of players that quit playing the game over a period of time. Churn rate can also be an indicator of whether or not you are on the right track, perhaps you are retaining users. Your churn rate will reveal the good and bad, so it is important to pay close attention and use the data to your advantage. 

Why and when players churn? Now that we understand churn rate, it is important to look at the player journey and take a closer look at why and when they are churning. 
​
Some of the most common reasons players churn are:

• Poor onboarding: Perhaps the game is too complicated, and difficult for new players to understand
• Technical problems: is your app crashing upon opening? Are there lags, feezes, or blank screens? Excessive memory problems?
• Aggressive ads and annoying reminders: If an ad interrupts game play, or if there are too many ads (even on the free tier) players are at a higher risk of churn. If the in-app, email or push notifications are invasive, players will become annoyed.
• Lack of social interactions: Can the player share with friends or play against friends? A player is likely to churn when a friend abandons the game. 
• Player boredom: If you fail to introduce new offerings, additions or levels, players will grow bored and lose interest. Furthermore, if the tasks are too repetitive, or if they are constantly completing similar tasks, they will churn. 
• Pricy Paid Tier: If users feel pressure to pay early on in their gaming experience, or too much, they are more likely to churn.

Now that you understand some of the reasons why players may churn, it is now important to look at when they churn. By assessing the player journey, you will be able to see at what point users may be churning, and make necessary changes to your player retention strategy. For example, on day 1- the player downloads the game. They are then prompted to create a log in. If you notice that the churn rate is very high on day 1, then it is very likely that the onboarding process is what is causing the churn. Perhaps the churn rate is high on day 30. Could that be caused by player boredom? Take a closer look at the features, notifications and upsells that could be triggered on day 30 that are pushing players to churn. 

What can I do to reduce churn? We have previously covered mobile engagement strategies, and the ways in which you can engage with your players to boost engagement and reduce churn, but it is important to continuously assess your churn data, and experiment with new retention strategies. Here are some additional strategies that you can try:

• Ease into the introduction: Do not overwhelm your players with too many details upon their first play. Guide them, but don’t be too aggressive. 
• ​Introduce new features: Keep your game exciting by introducing new features like new levels, unlock play modes, tools or characters. 
• ​Introduce player vs player: Adding a competitive environment is a great way to reduce churn.

Even though the mobile gaming industry experiences high churn rates, don’t let these statistics discourage you. Pay close attention to your churn data, and let it work for you in creating innovative, and strategic player retention strategies. Take your findings and make adjustments based on what the data is telling you. Keep track of your churn data, and set specific benchmarks to keep you on track. 
​
If you are looking to reduce your player churn Predikat has various solutions that can help you do so. Connect with us today.