Optimizing user retention strategies is a continuous endeavor for gaming teams and with the recent privacy updates, the struggle to retain players is under siege. According to AppsFlyer, the tightening privacy regulations have caused day 30 retention rates to plummet 10.3% in Q3 of 2022 - ouch!
User retention begins the second a user downloads your game, which makes how you engage your users and onboard them hyper-critical. But different players download your game for different reasons, which makes using early game personalization surveys important so that players can self identify, which in turn helps your liveops team to customize their experience.
That said, we thought it would be interesting to see what mobile gamers had to say about how they liked to start playing a new mobile game. Here’s what we found.
We surveyed 1,002 mobile gamers, balanced to the US Census. In a couple hours, we had our results.
The type of game can greatly influence how users decide to start playing for the first time. We all likely have preconceived notions about how players want to start playing a casual game vs a shooter game or a simulation game vs RPG. But from the graph below, you can see how important it is to understand what your players prefer.
For example, players of casual games have a strong preference towards jumping right in and learning by doing - trial by fire. On the other hand, players of hyper casual games tend to take their time in order to figure things out.
Additionally, players of simulation games, while they like to jump in and learn by doing, more than any other genre, they also like lots of onboarding and step-by-step walkthroughs before they start playing.
Shooters also had a large respondent base say they like to always play with a friend or family member to help get them going at first.
For full survey results, click here.
Interestingly, as you can see below, it seems competitive gamers prefer to jump right in and start playing more than other gamers with different motivations for playing, especially "social" gamers.
Tailoring your onboarding experience to your type of game is a great first step to improving retention rates. But as you can see, player preference can vary greatly when it comes to how they like to initially learn and start playing a game.
For example, players who say they like lots of onboarding and step-by-step walkthroughs, you can provide timely instructional pop ups and short video clips of what to do at specific points in the game.
User retention is a critical component to any gaming team’s monetization success. Your user acquisition strategies might be dialed in but if your players are leaving as fast as they’re coming, you’ve got a problem. But if you can personalize your players’ onboarding experiences to better match how they like to engage with your game, you have a much better chance of retaining and monetizing them. And that’s where early game personalization surveys to unlock player experience insights can turn a game from failing to scaling.
Top game studios are leaning into player experience insights. The more they listen, the better decision they can make. We help AAA mobile game teams unlock feedback from all players – not just the loud ones – while monetizing with brand surveys.
If you’re interested in learning more about what motivates your players to inform your decision making, we have some exciting solutions to share with you. 
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