Analytics for games
As of the 3rd of January, we researched how analytics affect games. We’ve had several lectures before as to how this is achieved with mobile games, this blog will be talking about data and marketing analytics.
In relation to customer analytics, a term applied to datasets whose size is greater than traditional databases that capture is known as “Big Data”.
“Big data is a term applied to datasets whose size or type is beyond the ability of traditional relational databases to capture, manage and process the data with low latency. Big data has one or more of the following characteristics: high volume, high velocity or high variety.”
IBM, 2021
What this data is typically used for is that it is able to help the developers track trends and problems within their games by following it.
This is considered to be quite valuable as it is able to give developers important feedback about specific parts about their game, and what players enjoy or don’t enjoy about it.
“In gaming, big data is particularly important for tracking trends, diagnosing problems, and improving game design.”
Indicative Team, 2021
An example of Big Data being utilized would be of a game using feedback from detecting problematic gameplay moments.
Candy Crush Saga’s developers detected that they were losing user retention during a certain level in the game due to a gaming element that stopped players from progressing.
“Users were massively abandoning level 65, reasons unknown. With 725 levels in total, for Candy Crush Saga such a tendency was quite a trouble. King turned to data analysts to reveal that most people were abandoning because of a particular gaming element that didn’t let users make it past level 65. The element was deleted, and user retention got moving again.”
Kseniya Yurevich, 2019
Once the element was removed from the game, players managed to regain interest and kept playing the game. This data was able to help the developers to understand what works well for their audience.
Another thing analytics can do for games is to see what helps boost monetization and how companies can adjust their strategies to further help business, analytics can help show what sells well within the game.
Many games, especially mobile ones, choose to have in-app purchases. These games tend to have a free-to-play model as well – non-gaming apps also may have in-app purchases.
“According to Business of Apps, 79% of gaming apps currently monetize via in-app purchases, while 50% of non-gaming apps do the same.”
Silvija, 2021
In-app purchases can allow free-to-play games to still thrive and make money, many users tend to spend plenty in app stores already and are predicted to be spending more within the future.
“If you want to make your mobile game free to download, but still make money from it, in-app purchases are the way to go. According to AppAnnie, by 2022, users will spend 156.5 billion in app stores.”
Andrea Knezovic, 2020
How you can implement these into your game is to give the player the option to pay for additional content, such as extra lives, in-game currency, etc.
Although these wouldn’t be completely necessary, they would provide a massive benefit towards helping the player.
For example, many freemium games tend to offer starter packs to newer players to help them progress through the game more easier and much faster as shown in Figure 1.
The freemium mobile game model tends to be very successful and generate a lot of revenue.
As a recent survey made in 2021 has been shown, the mobile games market’s revenue has risen to generating 16.8 billion more since 2018 (See Figure 2).
“The global free-to-play mobile games market was estimated at 73.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, and this figure is predicted to rise to 75.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2021.”
J. Clement, 2021
These analytics show as to why there are so many freemium games within the mobile market that use similar strategies such as in-app purchases to generate revenue, it is a successful model and many companies follow.
I feel as if analytics can very much guide developers on how to better structure monetization around their games, for my hyper casual game I may want to consider the possibilities of how I could add optional ways that can focus on aiding players – whilst not being necessary to win the game to keep fair.
Bibliography
Ibm.com. 2021. Big Data Analytics. [online] Available at: https://www.ibm.com/analytics/hadoop/big-data-analytics#:~:text=Big%20data%20is%20a%20term,high%20velocity%20or%20high%20variety. [Accessed 8 January 2022].
Indicative. 2021. Gaming Analytics: How to Leverage Your Customer Data for Sustained Business Growth – Indicative. [online] Available at: https://www.indicative.com/resource/gaming-analytics/ [Accessed 8 January 2022].
Yurevich, K., 2019. Data Analytics Streamlines Gaming Industry. Here’s How. [online] Datanami. Available at: https://www.datanami.com/2019/08/29/data-analytics-streamlines-gaming-industry-heres-how/ [Accessed 8 January 2022].
Knezovic, A., 2020. Mobile Game Monetization Trends: Best Strategies to Monetize Your Game in 2020. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/udonis/mobile-game-monetization-trends-best-strategies-to-monetize-your-game-in-2020-fe2de42d4463 [Accessed 8 January 2022].
Udonis. 2021. In-App Purchases Guide for Mobile Game Monetization | Udonis. [online] Available at: https://www.blog.udonis.co/mobile-marketing/mobile-games/in-app-purchases [Accessed 9 January 2022].
Casaje, J., 2022. Pin on Game Shop UI. [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/389631805252208220/ [Accessed 9 January 2022].
J. Clement, Statista. 2021. F2P mobile gaming revenue 2021 | Statista. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107021/f2p-mobile-games-revenue/#:~:text=The%20global%20free%2Dto%2Dplay,billion%20U.S.%20dollars%20by%202021. [Accessed 9 January 2022].