The studio that makes the game has a screen of numbers. How many people opened the game today. How many of them were new. How many came back from yesterday. How much money each player brought in. It cannot see whether anyone had fun.
Next day28 of 100 who installed
A week later10 of 100 who installed
A month later4 of 100 who installed
Typical figures from an industry report.
The number the studio watches hardest is how many come back. Of 100 people who install a typical phone game, about 28 open it the next day. About 10 are still there a week later. About 4 after a month. Most players are gone within a day.
1 of 20
Of every 20 who install, about 1 is left after a month
Of 100 people who install a typical phone game, about how many still open it a month later?
About 40.
Not yet. Forty would be a huge success. The report puts it at four, and a studio that reached ten would be doing very well.
All of them. Installed means kept.
Not yet. Installed means tried. Most phones hold games that were opened once, and the studio's screen shows every one of them leaving.
About 4.
Right. Ninety-six in a hundred are gone, and the game paid to reach every one of them with an ad. The four who stay have to pay for the ninety-six.
Streaknext day
++
Energy barvisits a day
++
Passweek ten
++
Chestmoney per player
Now look back at this course. Every part of it is aimed at one of those numbers. The streak is aimed at next day. The energy bar at visits a day. The pass at still here in week ten. The chest at money per player. Nothing in a free game is there by accident.
Move the control to set how long ago a group of 100 people installed the game. The figures are typical ones from an industry report, rounded.
Still playing28 of 100 who installed
Gone72 of 100 who installed
1 day laterOf 100 people who installed the game, about 28 still open it 1 day later. The other 72 have gone, most of them without ever paying.
Still playing10 of 100 who installed
Gone90 of 100 who installed
7 days laterOf 100 people who installed the game, about 10 still open it 7 days later. The other 90 have gone, most of them without ever paying.
Still playing6 of 100 who installed
Gone94 of 100 who installed
14 days laterOf 100 people who installed the game, about 6 still open it 14 days later. The other 94 have gone, most of them without ever paying.
Still playing4 of 100 who installed
Gone96 of 100 who installed
30 days laterOf 100 people who installed the game, about 4 still open it 30 days later. The other 96 have gone, most of them without ever paying.
A game gets 1,000 new players every day. On these figures, how many of one day's new players are still there a month later?
All 1,000. They installed it.
Not yet. Installing is a single tap. On the report's figures, 960 of the thousand will not be opening the game a month on.
About 280.
Not yet. That is the next-day figure. By a month most of those 280 have gone too; the report's month figure is 4 in 100.
About 40.
Right. Forty players a day, every day, are what the game keeps. A month's worth of those is about 1,200 regulars, out of 30,000 who tried it.
Move the control.
A million players a day
↓→
3 cents each
↓→
30,000 dollars a day
Made-up round numbers, real shape.
The money number is tiny per person. The studio takes the day's money and divides it by the day's players, and it comes to a few cents. A million players a day at 3 cents each is 30,000 dollars a day. The game does not need each player to pay. It needs a lot of players.
500,000Players a day
↓→
4 centsEach
A game has 500,000 players a day, and the day's money divided by players comes to 4 cents. How much does the game take in a day?
dollars
Right. Twenty thousand dollars a day, about 7 million a year. Almost all of it came from a few thousand of the half million, and the studio's screen can name every one of them.
Each of these is a lever from this course. Which number is it built to move?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
A seven-day calendar with a prize on day 7.
A chest with a 1 in 100 chance of the rare skin.
A bar of five lives that refills every 30 minutes.
A message saying your lives are full again.
A gem bundle shown at half price for the next ten minutes.
A seven-day calendar with a prize on day 7. → Come back
Not yet. Come back. The calendar pays in free coins for a visit, and a visit is the next-day number.
A chest with a 1 in 100 chance of the rare skin. → Pay
Not yet. Pay. A chest sells a chance for money, over and over, and it moves the money-per-player number.
A bar of five lives that refills every 30 minutes. → Come back
Not yet. Come back. The bar breaks one sitting into many visits, and visits a day is what it counts.
A message saying your lives are full again. → Come back
Not yet. Come back. The message exists to turn a full bar into an open, and an open is a visit counted.
A gem bundle shown at half price for the next ten minutes. → Pay
Not yet. Pay. A discount with a clock on it is a push to buy now, and it is aimed at the money number alone.
Come backstreak, bar, message
vsvs
Paychest, bundle
Right. Anything that gives you a reason to open the game is aimed at coming back. Anything with a price on it is aimed at paying. The studio watches both numbers, and every lever is pointed at one of them.
Before the update30 of 100 back next day
After the update20 of 100 back next day
After an update, the studio sees the next-day number fall from 30 in 100 to 20. What does it most likely do?
Show the old and new versions to different players and find which change drove people away.
Right. The number said something went wrong, not what. The studio cannot ask players why they left, because they are gone; it can only test, which the next lesson is about.
Ask the players who left how they felt.
Not yet. The players who left have uninstalled the game and cannot be asked. The screen shows their absence, not their reasons.
Raise prices to make up the money.
Not yet. Fewer players at higher prices lose more, not less. The studio's problem is the ten in a hundred who stopped coming, and a price cannot bring them back.
Lesson complete
A studio steers by what it can count: who came back, how often, and how much they paid.