How To Bring Back Inactive Gamers?

The issue of lapsed players is a common topic of discussion in game development communities. How do you bring back inactive players who have quit playing your game? What do you do to catch their attention again?

Yes, advertising helps. But this comes at a high cost. Instead, one can allocate these finances towards acquiring new players and subscriptions for enhanced profitability. 

 

However, if the number of lapsed players is worryingly high, you need to visit your basics. You can also try a few tricks to bring them back. Let’s take a look: 

 

  • Make changes: With so many competitors around, you need to provide your players with a reason to keep returning to your game. If there is no ‘hook’ (game additions, new levels, and new challenges) per se, they won’t have any impetus to come back.

 

Moreover, if your game is too glitchy or slow, many people may simply move on and forget about it altogether. The same goes for spammy ads which affect gameplay. Therefore, do attend to such issues immediately. 

 

  • Offer gifts: This is easily one of the most effective ways to re-engage lapsed players. Send them special power boosters and additional in-game spawns/play chances to make them log in to your game again. This is a win-win situation as they also end up spending a significant amount on your mobile gaming app to use up these bonuses. 

 

In fact, you can also ensure high return rates with a login calendar, which incentivizes the act of returning to your gaming app regularly. Whenever users visit your game, they get a special gift as long as they log in every day.

 

  • Great deals: Everyone loves discounts! How about making a sale while getting lapsed players to notice you? With great discounts and deals, this is possible. 

 

Merely with a push notification, you can kill two birds with one stone. Provide them with attractive discounts on ongoing sales, which may help them to make a stellar comeback. Make sure that the offer is time-bound so that you can get them to act fast. 


Reward their friends: Multiplayer games have had a roaring success of bringing back lapsed players by tapping into their online social community. Some games, in particular, award tokens to game friends if they successfully get their inactive mates back. As they can exchange these tokens for in-game rewards, it acts as a motivation for them.

Conclusion

Before you start thinking outside the box to address the growing problem of inactive players, look inside first. Think about the reasons why people might be leaving your mobile gaming app. Are there too many fraudulent actors in the game? Are scammers using cheat codes to win? Is your graphics choppy? Is the game using up too much of the average user’s internet bandwidth?

 

If these issues are not addressed, your loyal community of gamers will inch closer to the ‘uninstall’ button with every passing day. Once you are done tackling such concerns, start working on a fun campaign to get inactive gamers back!