Engagement Drops Faster On Mobile Games
- by Ben Frederick @mp_benfred, February 16, 2016
The average app sees 9% daily engagement within three months of being installed on a device, while for gaming apps that number drops to 3% within the same period.
On average, 90% of users keep an app of another category installed in the first three months, while only 83% of users keep gaming apps installed for the first three months. Gaming apps also see a sharper drop in retention that dips lower than other apps over a longer period.
Within the gaming app category, puzzle and arcade games have better rates than other styles of game. News, communication and productivity had the highest retention rates of apps other than games. Users tend to keep apps installed on devices without using them for a long time before they finally delete them.
Apps with high engagement in the first three days after downloading tend to have higher engagement in general and are less likely to be deleted. The first week is critical for marketers looking to seal the deal with potential users.
On the other hand, Digi-Capital predicts that the mobile gaming industry is expected to grow from $35 billion in 2016 to $48 billion by 2020.
It would appear that developers and marketers looking to monetize their gaming apps shouldn’t expect long-term relationships with users if they have not engaged early and often.
Let's face it, you can pick the best ad platform around -- Facebook, Airpush, AdMob and others that make developers millions every year -- but if you make a BAD game that users tire of quickly, how can you blame an ad platform for failing to monetize an app over the long haul? I think too much blame is placed on ad networks for an app's inability to make bank. Sometimes -- most of the time -- apps don't deserve engagement because they are of very poor quality.