Fun or gone: 33 key benchmarks for evaluating the success of the game

SOOMLA has collected in one post indicators by which you can roughly estimate how successful the game turned out to be. We share.

One of the most effective tools in business is the method of rough preliminary evaluation of the project using the specified benchmarks. This method is very useful in cases where you need to quickly assess the capabilities of the project. The mobile gaming industry has a whole set of such benchmarks or KPIs. Here are 33 of them.

Retention and engagement

1. For the second day (D2), a good retention rate is 40%

2. For the seventh day (D7), a good figure is 20%

3. For the thirtieth day (D30) – 10%

4. The ratio of MAU to DAU: a bad indicator is 1 to 10. In really addictive games, this indicator tends to 1:3. In other words, 33% of users play the game every day.

5. Session length: you need to focus on about 7.5 minutes. Although in some genres such as card games and board games, this number ranges from 10 to 15 minutes.

6. The average amount of time a user spends playing a game per day, according to the Flurry analytical company, was 33 minutes in the 2nd quarter of 2015. This is lower than in the 1st quarter. Then the time was 52 minutes.

Marketing and user acquisition

7. How much of the total revenue is spent on marketing:

• Zynga: 22%
• Glu: 20%
• King: 18%
• For smaller companies, the figure may be 30%

8. CPI (in First World countries): the high value is $10 (for strategies), the low value is $2 (for casual games).

9. Growth of downloads after the feature: as of the 2nd half of 2015, games downloads of games after the feature grew by an average of 130% (according to App Annie).

10. The growth of downloads after getting into the top charts: 100% increase (for each paid installation there is 1 organic).

11. ROI from the user acquisition campaign in the first week: for games with the above retention rates – 12%. For projects with lower indicators – around 20%.

12. Figures for games in the top 10 App Store: from 72 thousand downloads per day, revenue – from $ 47 thousand per day

13. Figures for games in the top-25 App Store: from 32 thousand downloads per day, revenue – from $ 23 thousand per day

14. Figures for games in the top-50 App Store: from 23 thousand downloads per day and from $ 12 thousand per day. Revenue for the top 50 in Google is from 6.6 thousand per day.

15. CTR: for banners – from 0.25% to 0.75%. For fullscreen ads, this number is 5-10%, but a significant portion of clicks will be random.

16. Click-to-install conversion: 11.9% on iOS and 13.5% on Android according to Branchmetrics.

Monetization

17. ARPDAU in the first world countries: the lowest value is $0.005 (for a game with the only monetization option – through advertising banners). The highest is $1 (Japanese hardcore strategy). For Glu, this figure is $0.08 worldwide, and for Kabam, A Thinking Ape, PerBlue and DeNa, the value ranges between $0.4 and $1 (for hardcore titles).

18. ARPDAU in the first world countries for games with monetization through advertising banners: the lowest value is $0.005. If you connect more rewarded videos, the figure, according to some estimates, can rise to $ 0.09.

19. LTV in the First World countries (income from IAP and advertising): the results can vary greatly. Hardcore titles can reach an LTV of $20 (for all players, not just paying users). In the case of a good casino game, the figure can reach $10. The lower limit is $0. If monetization is not configured in the game, then it may not earn anything at all.

20. LTV in First World countries (advertising revenue only): the lowest value is $0.1, the highest is $1.5.

21. CPM of rewarded video advertising in the first world countries: for some genres, the figure reaches up to $60. The lowest values are in the range of $15, and the more videos are shown to users, the lower this figure becomes.

22. CPM of video advertising in First world countries: from $8 to $15 for most games. But again: if you show the video too often, the value will decrease.

23. CPM of fullscreen advertising in First World countries: from $5 to $10 eCPM.

24. CPM of banners in the first world countries: from $1 to $3 eCPM.

25. Conversion of players to paying users: within a month, the average value is 1.5%, and within 1 day – 0.3%.

26. Revenue receipt: 10% of paying players usually provide the project with 50% of revenue.

27. LTV of paying users (final ARPPU): for hardcore genres – on average about $500, for casino games – $200-300, in three-in-a-row the figure can reach up to $ 150, but usually is $50-$100.

28. The percentage of the total income that advertising brings: for hardcore strategies it is 0%, for midcore strategies and simulators – 10% -15%, for KKI and tabletops – around 25%-30%, for casinos and casual games – up to 50%.

Market research

29. How to calculate the approximate MAU from the rating of the game in Google Play (method 1):

• take the rating of the game on Google Play;
• divide by the number of years that have passed since the launch of the game;
• multiply by 10 (the result can be 30% higher or lower than the real MAU).

30. How to calculate the approximate MAU from the rating of the game in Google Play (method 2):

• take the minimum number of installations on Google Play;
• divide by the number of years that have passed since the launch of the game;
• divide by 2 (the result can be 30% higher or lower than the real MAU).

31. The number of applications per user: on the Android user‘s device, on average, there are 95 applications.

32. How many applications a user installs per month: the average user installs 1 application per month.

33: The total volume of the mobile gaming market in 2015 was $34 billion (according to App Annie).

Source: SOOMLA blog