How do you measure your game's appeal and engagement?

1 Define your goals and target audience

Before you can measure your game's appeal and engagement, you need to define what you want to achieve and who you want to reach. What are the main objectives of your game? What are the core values and emotions that you want to convey? Who are the ideal players for your game? What are their preferences, motivations, and behaviors? By answering these questions, you can create a clear vision and direction for your game, and identify the key indicators that will reflect your game's performance.

2 Choose relevant metrics and tools

There are many metrics and tools that can help you measure your game's appeal and engagement, but not all of them are equally useful or relevant for your game. Depending on your goals and target audience, you may want to focus on different aspects, such as retention, monetization, feedback, or social interaction. For instance, tracking downloads and installs can show how many people are interested in your game and willing to try it out. You can use platforms like Google Play, App Store, or Steam for this purpose. Moreover, metrics like day 1 retention (the percentage of players who return to your game on the first day after installing it) or engagement rate (the percentage of players who are active on your game over a period of time) can be used to measure retention and engagement. These numbers can be tracked using analytics tools like Google Analytics, Firebase, or Unity Analytics. Additionally, average revenue per user (the average amount of money that players spend on your game per user) or conversion rate (the percentage of players who make purchases on your game) can help you measure monetization and revenue. Finally, collecting feedback from players through surveys, reviews, ratings, or comments can give you an idea of their satisfaction and loyalty. Lastly, metrics like referrals (the number of players who come to your game through a link or recommendation from another player), shares (the number of times that players share your game or content from your game on social media), or impressions (the number of times that your game or content from your game is seen on social media) can help you understand the popularity and influence of your game.

3 Compare and benchmark

Once you have chosen the metrics and tools that are relevant for your game, you need to compare and benchmark them to see how your game is performing and where it can improve. You can compare your metrics to your own goals and expectations, as well as your own history and trends. Additionally, you can research and analyze the metrics of other games that are similar to yours in genre, theme, audience, or platform. This will allow you to compare your game to them, identify patterns and trends that can help you predict and optimize performance, as well as learn from their best practices and mistakes. Through this comparison, you may be able to find gaps and opportunities in the market.

4 Test and iterate

Finally, you need to test and iterate your game based on the data and insights that you have gathered from your metrics. You can use methods like A/B testing, user testing, or prototyping to experiment with different game design, features, or content, and see how they affect your metrics. You can also use feedback and ratings from your players to identify their needs, wants, and pain points, and improve your game accordingly. By testing and iterating your game, you can enhance its appeal and engagement, and create a better experience for your players.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?