HOST:

Isaac RoseboomHead of Insight

What the best games knowthat the rest don’t

AgendaIntroduction

• Frictionless and interactive on-boarding

• A hierarchical approach to game loop at session, day and week level

• Aggressive rewarding process that constantly gives player momentum

Last few years has seen radical improvement in retention mechanics in F2P :

GARDENSCAPES STAR WARS GALAXY OF HEROES CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS

Strong task system to direct player Escalating rewards for daily play Strong elder player loop

AgendaF2P monetization

• ‘GOOD’ retention (e.g. D1 retention of 40% and D7 of 15%) will give an ‘average’ player lifetime of 15 days

• So if you want a $1.50 LTV (i.e. $1 net LTV) need an ARPDAU of 10¢ **

• In the deltaDNA platform, currently fewer than 30% of games would achieve this.

30%

However running a profitable F2P game is still difficult…

**All revenue figures gross (i.e. before app store cut)

AgendaWhy games struggles?

1. Too generous to non-payers

2. IAP is too cheap

3. No drive for spenders to spend again

4. Not enough Whales

Why do games with good retention struggle to monetize?

AgendadeltaDNA study

• 100 best performing games by MAU

• Roughly even split across genres: Puzzle, Action, Strategy

• Just iOS

• Just US players

Can use deltaDNA data across many games to answer these questions

Charts that follow are for:

AgendaToo generous

Day 7 Retention vs. Day 7 Spender%

• Day 7 Spenders: %Players active on day 7who have spent at any point

• High Day 7 retention no guarantee ofgood monetization!

• 38% of games with D7 > 10% have 10cARPDAU

• 54% of games with D7 Spenders > 10%have 10c ARPDAU

AgendaIAP is too cheap

Conversion does not decrease if minimum price point is increasedBut… ARPDAU increases dramatically

Does not include starter bundles / promotions – just standard pricing

Price point lower than $2 devalues game significantly

Q3 = 75th percentile of games studied; M = median of games, Q1 = 25th percentile of games

AgendaNo repeat spending

Hard to get above 10¢ ARPDAU without at least 3 IAPs / spender (lifetime)

AgendaNot enough Whales

Hard to get to 10¢ ARPDAU without at least 5% of spenders being Whales

Whale > $100/month

AgendaGetting to 10¢ ARPDAU

If you want 10¢ ARPDAU, you need:• Day 7 retention > 10%• Payers on day 7 > 10%• Min. price point > $2• At least 3 spends / spender• At least 5% whales ( > $100 lifetime spend)

16% of games achieve all thisAll that do have ARPDAU > 10¢; 30¢ mean ARPDAU

How can this be achieved? (via analytics of course!)

Derive basic KPI goals from these charts

**All revenue figures gross (i.e. before app store cut)

AgendaHow to do it?

• Need at least 1,000 spenders to get any answers from analytics

• At 2% conversion rate, this means 50k players(i.e. serious soft-launch with marketing spend)

• Want to get basics right before this:‣ Core game must drive committed players towards IAP‣ IAP pricing should be well thought-out‣ Game must drive repeat conversion

Recipe to build a high LTV game

AgendaCarrot vs stick

Either way, it must be deeply integrated into the core game loop

Design: driving conversion

Premium experience

Flexible play

Pros: Naturally leads to repeat purchase

Cons: Hard to design

Resource pinch points

Pay walls

Pros: Easy to construct

Cons: Increases churn

R E W A R D P U N I S H

AgendaGood monetisation strategies

CLASH ROYALE

‘Soft’ pinch points

BEST F IENDS FOREVER

Integrated into core reward loop

GOLF CLASH

Well balanced bundle offers Gacha and collection mechanics

STAR WARS: GALAXY OF HEROES

AgendaBuilding analytics into design

Three step process to drive design-analytics cycle

1. KPIs (is there a problem?)

2. Shallow (where is there a problem?)

3. Deep (what is the problem?)

Developing these mechanics via analytics

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

K P I S H A L L O W D E E P

Example: Conversion

Daily conversion < 1%

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

K P I S H A L L O W D E E P

Example: Repeat spend

Lifetime conversion > 2%but…

Daily conversion < 1% Spends by level Spender economy balance

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

K P I S H A L L O W D E E P

Example: Pricing

Is my minimum price < $2

Daily conversion > 1%but…

ARPPU = $8

Yes

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

K P I S H A L L O W D E E P

Example: Whales

Lifetime conversion > 2%Daily conversion > 1%Min. price point > $2

but…ARPDAU = 6c

Most whales build up via daily spend of moderate amounts Look at player spending patterns

AgendaUsing analytics

• Ability to track and analyze player behavior at granular level

• Ability to build custom reports and track bespoke KPIs over time

• Ability to test quickly and report detailed impact of tests (not just p-value)

How analytics technology can support decision making?

AgendaConclusion

Designing a successful game is not easy!

Using analytics it is possible to identify and understand underperforming aspects and improve

BUT…

HOST:

Isaac RoseboomHead of Insight

Thank you!