In terms of numbers, it's easy to tell the difference between good and bad games. However, the classic KPIs that publishers rely on to evaluate game performance don't really distinguish what's good from what's great. Leaning on the deltaDNA database of thousands of games, we will show how a focus on long-term engagement can provide a huge boost to the lifetime value of players and hence the difference between a marginal ‘good’ game and a smash hit ‘great’ game. This webinar will show how to combine the right KPIs with best practice game design to ensure your game reaches its potential. What's covered: This event is targeted at developers looking to understand how to drive long term engagement and the impact it can have on the overall profitability of their games. Chief product officer and head of insight Dr. Isaac Roseboom will highlight the most important trends in ad strategies and explain how to benefit from them. Some areas set to be covered in this free webinar include: Long-term retention market statistics across different genres Why standard retention KPIs miss the whole picture How to build a game for long-term engagement

1. Isaac Roseboom
Chief Product Officer

2. Isaac Roseboom
Chief Product Officer
Player Engagement:
The Good, the Bad
& the Great

3. AgendaWhat is a ‘great’ mobile F2P game?
● Top 100 install charts?
○ Cost a lot of UA!
● D1 retention > 50%
○ Genre specific
● ARPDAU > 30c
○ Niche games > broad ones
What about player lifetime?

4. AgendaPlayer Lifetime
● Expected number of days
a player will play in a
game
● Sum of the retention curve
● LTV = ARPDAU x Lifetime
● Most games between 5
and 50 days

5. AgendaPlayer Lifetime by Genre
● Casino & Puzzle games
typically have longest
lifespan
● Action and simulation
games shortest
● A Casino game with half
the ARPDAU of a Sports
game will have same LTV
Lifetime in Days

6. AgendaPlayer Lifetime vs. retention KPIs
● Take 10k player cohorts
at least 1 year old
● Measure retention and
overall lifetime
● Almost no correlation
between D1 and player
lifetime

7. AgendaPlayer Lifetime vs retention KPIs
● D7 is tighter but still large
spread
● Factor of 3x at D7 = 20%

8. AgendaPlayer Lifetime vs retention KPIs
● Even at D30 factor of
more than 2 between
longest and shortest
lifetime

9. AgendaAnatomy of a player lifetime curve
● Take all lifetime curves
for 10k cohorts
● Segment based on ratio
of
○ D30 to D7 (2)
○ D180 to D30 (5)

10. AgendaAnatomy of a player lifetime curve

11. AgendaWhat do Great games do differently?
● Start with more
sessions per day and
maintain it better

12. AgendaWhat do Great games do differently?
● Good and bad games
longer sessions to
begin, quickly
decaying
● Great games have
shorter initial session
times, and maintain
that time throughout
● Leads to burnout and
churn later on

13. Agenda
● Different genres have
natural first session length
● Want to balance game so
session times in line with
‘great’ games in genre
Pacing
First Session Length in Minutes

14. Agenda
● F2P games need to
ensure there is enough
content for players to stay
engaged for a long time
● Players will not spend in a
game they can grind
within a month
● Even games with lots of
content can fail if they
don’t balance the pacing
Pacing

15. AgendaHangovers and Burnout
● Important to measure on
different timescales
● Longer sessions = more
immediate revenue
● However most of this is
‘pulled forward’
● Long term Impact of
hangover on engagement
can be worse than short term
uplift

16. AgendaHow to enforce sustainable play? Timers!
Energy
Mechanics
Lives
Build
Timers
Reward
Timers
Clash Royale
Homescapes
Star Trek: Fleet Command
Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem

17. AgendaExamples: Marvel Strike Force
● Sessionization managed by recurring
daily challenges.
● As Challenges dry up, it is less
compelling to stick around due to
reduced rewards. (Natural breakpoint)
● As game evolves new tasks are fed
into the system to facilitate late game
content/updates.

18. AgendaExamples: The Walking Dead: Our World
● Sessions are controlled by content in the
immediate vicinity.
● Once engaged with there is a cooldown
timer.
● Players need to move or can purchase
range extenders (VIP Pass) to increase
available content slightly.
● Very quickly, a habitual gameplay cycle
is established with natural break points.

19. AgendaOther options
● ‘Soft’ reward blockers rather than locking
players out
● Examples
○ 15 minute EXP/Progress/Reward
multiplier on first session of everyday
○ 2x multiplier on first session of each day
○ 1.5x multiplier every 4 hours

20. AgendaConclusions
● ‘Classic’ retention KPIs still important
but...
● ‘Good’ games are leaving a lot of
money on the table by ignoring long
term (D30+) engagement
● Secret is to get players into a
sustainable playing pattern as early as
possible
● Design is crucial here, with analytics
providing the optimisation

21. Isaac Roseboom
Chief Product Officer
Thank you!
info@deltadna.comwww.deltadna.com