Trial run: Which metrics are the most important?

Chartboost company in its own blog talked about which four key metrics of the shareware game should be monitored during the trial run.

1. Early retention rates

Start tracking the percentage of players who have returned to the game. The most common reference points are day 1, day 7 and day 28 (or 30, but day 28 is more convenient because it helps to compare metrics by calendar days. Users, as a rule, have a game routine on weekdays that differs from their weekend habits). The minimum indicators for these terms are about 40%, 20% and 10%, respectively.

Retention shows how many players have returned and want to play again. If early retention is at a low level, this is a signal that the initial user experience needs to be improved.

If the game has low late retention rates, then this is an alarming sign. “It seems to me that it is impossible to significantly change the indicators of late retention without making serious changes to the game. Some of them are comparable in cost to launching a project from scratch,” comments Josh Burns, a consultant in the field of mobile games.

2. Average Revenue per user (ARPU)

The main source of income in shareware projects is in-game purchases and advertising. The total revenue in this case shows how things are with monetization. ARPU indicators vary greatly from genre to genre. But even the most casual f2p game should earn at least $3 per month from the user.

3. Average Revenue per paying User (ARPPU)

Unlike ARPU, which shows the revenue from each player, ARPPU shows how much the paying user left in the game on average. It is necessary to monitor this indicator, because it is especially important for shareware games. In such projects, a very small percentage of actively paying players is responsible for most of the revenue.

Projects with properly configured monetization show ARPPU up to $20. In order to improve this metric, you need to study the habits of the paying part of the project users.

4. Conversion

ARPPU shows how much the paying user spends. But it is important to pay attention to non-paying players. In order to monetize the game, you need to try to convert these users into paying ones. The average conversion rate is 1-2%. Successful projects show up to 5%.

The company’s experts stipulate: “good” indicators vary from genre to genre. For example, a successful endless runner is the one with high retention. But the revenue per user (RPU) of this genre is low. Hardcore strategies can give opposite results. So first you need to determine the averages. To do this, Chartboost experts offer to evaluate the metrics of projects similar to yours.

A source: https://www.chartboost.com

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