Players Leaving Your Game? Here’s Why
Did you know that fewer than 40% of new players return to a game after their first brush with it? That’s right.
Every game developer is aware that 100% retention is an elusive dream. Even if your graphics are top-notch and your gameplay is super-smooth, gamers may not return to your offering after trying it out once.
However, if players are leaving in droves, you have a major problem. Are the controls faulty? Is something spoiling their gaming experience and making them leave your game? Focusing on this important subject, this blog highlights the primary reasons why people may end up uninstalling your game from their devices:
1. Poor start
At the end of the day, first impressions count. Users want you to bowl them over when they open the mobile gaming app for the first time. However, if it takes too much time to load, the tutorial looks bad from the design perspective, or if it includes a long-drawn onboarding process, then your players may leave in the first 10 minutes of using it.
2. Lopsided, weird gameplay
Weapons acting erratically, disappearing rewards, unusual surges in difficulty levels — all of these are recipes that will lead to disaster. That is why experts at Phonato Studios constantly stress on the importance of playtesting, wherein problem areas are identified and addressed during the game designing process.
3. Bugs and scammers
No one likes glitches while playing a game. It can be frustrating, to say the least, if your in-game avatar gets stuck or if the chat feature doesn’t work. While getting rid of each and every bug might be a steep task, one must continue to address them as soon as they are detected. Have users test out your games right from the start to track issues.
In addition to this, make sure that your mobile gaming apps aren’t flooded with scammers and fraudulent entities that seek to exploit young gamers and steal their personal details. Take extra caution to ensure that spammy links are left unclickable in chat boxes. This will go a long way in keeping your players safe.
Gaming sessions don’t end
People have hectic lifestyles. So, if a single match goes on for hours and hours, they will probably not come online again! Of course, it’s a different story when it comes to a real-time strategy game, like Clash of Clans. However, even in this case, the player has a cooling-off period.
Ideally, a single session should not be longer than 30 minutes. But, the shorter, the better. Mobile games that go on only for 2-3 minutes are the ones reaping huge rewards at the moment as they can be played on the go, while grabbing coffee before work or while commuting. Therefore, do take these factors into account when deciding upon time frames.
Players don’t open your games to be frustrated or bored. They want to be engaged and entertained. For this, make sure that you do away with the above-mentioned problems and continuously work on optimizing the gaming experience.