Crashing & bugs are the most typical causes that make any user uninstall a game.
This means, if you’re not quick to identify and fix bugs, all your efforts would turn futile. Moreover, if the users consistently encounter crashes, freezes, or errors, 62% of users are likely to uninstall the application.
Besides, if your game is free from problems and you’re still losing players, that means something else is wrong.
It is possible that the game is too complicated for users to understand, that your monetization plan is too aggressive, or that the game simply lacks the necessary elements to keep people interested.
That is where game QA testing and metrics step in!
Why do we need to keep track of game metrics?
In today’s data-driven environment, tracking the appropriate metrics is essential to a game developer’s success. Mobile game metrics offer a glimpse into how players interact with the game and give game producers crucial insights into their users’ behavior.
Simply put, in-game metrics allow game producers to monitor and evaluate their game’s performance. Game makers have the knowledge they need to improve their app or game and, as a result, optimize it by usage, engagement, and business KPIs.
Essential Mobile Game Metrics To Keep Track Of
• Installs
The mobile gaming industry is a volume business. This implies you can only become financially successful with your mobile game if you can amass a sizeable user base.
Installs are a crucial mobile game indicator since they demonstrate how successful or unsuccessful your game is in the end. You won’t be able to generate a sizable amount of ad revenue, money from in-app sales, or subscriptions if you don’t get a lot of users.
Additionally, almost every formula for secondary metrics, including retention, ARPU, and conversion rate, will call for the number of installs.
• DAU (Daily Active Users):
DAU, or “daily active users,” refers to distinct individuals who made use of the app for at least one day (24-hour period).
However, Be aware that certain businesses will compute DAU in various ways depending on the user activity they track. This measure offers essential insights into how sticky your game is. Daily active users are the total number of people who opened your app during a given day.
• Monthly Active users
Monthly active users, or MAU, are defined as distinct users who used the app at least once in the previous month (30-day period).
Users need not interact with the product to be counted as an MAU; they must log in. In light of this, having a high MAU does not guarantee a high user engagement rate. You may determine how effectively your game maintains players by comparing the ratio of the two related measures, DAU and MAU.
• Retention Rate (RR)
One of the most crucial variables to monitor in mobile games is retention rate because it directly impacts your income figures.
The retention rate sheds light on the effectiveness of the game and the overall user experience. Primarily companies monitor day 1, day 7, and day 30 retention rate mobile game stats to determine the durability of our games. To learn more about how many gamers stick around, you may measure day 60 and 90 retentions.
• Churn Rate (CR)
The retention rate is one thing, while the churn rate is the other. You keep a check on dropped users (the ones who uninstalled your app). In other words, the churn rate counts the number of players who drop out of the game over time.
According to Clevertap, most app owners lose more than 90% of new users within the first month after the installation.
• Average Transaction Value (ATV)
The term “Average Transaction Value” (ATV) refers to the average cost of an in-app transaction or purchase.
Driving higher-value purchases will likewise attract higher-value consumers as long as you can build a personal rapport with them.
ATV is calculated by dividing your advertising expense by the total number of orders you’ve received.
• TTP (Time to Purchase)
Consider that after the app’s release, users have begun to interact with it. How long has it been since the download and the initial purchase?
How much did that buy cost? Your in-game offerings and ad placements can both benefit from this metric. By determining your conversion goals, you can turn your users into customers. For conversion, most games use various stages, achievements, in-app purchases, or in-game stuff.
You may learn how to monitor this indicator by reading this fantastic report provided by More visibility.
• CPI – Cost Per Install
The term “Cost Per Install,” or CPI, is frequently used to refer to campaigns that publishers run through digital ads to encourage downloads. Only if consumers download the app using the ad they clicked on will advertisers get paid.
Divide your ad expenditure by the number of installs to arrive at the CPI formula.
The average CPI varies depending on:
- The country
- Platform (Android vs. iOS)
- Ad format
• Session Length
The time a user spends actively playing a mobile game is measured by session length. The app’s session begins when it is launched and continues until it is stopped or the user logs off.
This statistic is a crucial determinant of user engagement and experience. It is predicated on the idea that as a session goes on, the user becomes more content with the gameplay and engages in the intended in-app activities.
Game genres’ session times vary considerably. Hence only comparable app kinds should be used as a standard. For instance, Card and Casino games shine out among genres, with average session lengths of up to 35 minutes, according to GameAnalytics.
Wrapping up!!
The measures mentioned above are standards that can aid you in entering the field of game metrics, even though sometimes analytics and metrics can be complex. Setting up benchmarks for your games is the most crucial step in mobile game analytics.
One can measure things like the effect of a game update or modifications to your user acquisition strategy after understanding how your users behave.
Author Bio:
Kanika Vatsyayan is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate audience about automation and manual testing.
