What are the best metrics for evaluating game performance on different devices and platforms?

Evaluating frame rate per event within a game offers a granular view of performance, pinpointing specific areas where optimization might be needed. By establishing a benchmark of a consistent 30-60 FPS as an ideal target, you can identify and address performance dips during intense gameplay or resource-heavy scenes. This targeted approach ensures a smoother, more enjoyable player experience, highlighting the importance of detailed performance metrics and continious game optimization.

Knowing the average RAM capacity of your target devices—whether they fall in the 2-4 GB range or the higher 8-16 GB bracket—can significantly influence your optimization strategies. For games on lower-end devices, it's crucial to streamline resource usage, possibly limiting advanced graphics or particle effects to ensure smooth performance. A good benchmark is to aim for your game not to exceed 25-50% of a device's available RAM. Consistently surpassing this threshold, especially reaching 250-400 MB usage on lower-end devices, can lead to noticeable performance degradation, affecting user experience and retention which will introduce entropy in your analytics.

Reducing loading times is crucial for maintaining player engagement, with every 10-second increase significantly resulting in user attrition (< 10s is best). Innovative strategies like implementing engaging loading screens or incorporating interactive elements can keep players entertained during waits. Employing progressive loading techniques, where essential game elements load first, allowing players to start interacting with the game sooner, can enhance the user experience. These methods, coupled with the smart use of loading bars that provide feedback and estimated wait times, can significantly improve players' perception of loading durations, fostering patience and maintaining interest.

For a robust and successful game, targeting a D1 retention rate of around 40% is advisable, as this suggests that players are finding enough value in the game to return after their initial session. Retention should also be monitored over extended periods to understand long-term engagement. Generally you should look for degrees of freedom to generalize scalability. For example, healthy retention benchmarks could be around 15%-20% for D7 and 5-10% for D30, though these figures can vary based on the game's genre and target audience. Tracking these metrics provides valuable insights into player behavior, allowing you to refine and enhance the gaming experience to boost engagement and retention over time.

It's way less expensive to get people to get back to your game or to have them make another purchase rather than to get a new player/buyer. Measure the retention rates to see what type of people stick for a longer time and when and where they fall off. Listen to their feedback and adjust the game so more of them stay.

These are 2 separate topics, so let's focus on ratings (or rather ASO). A couple dozen of games get released on Steam daily. It's very easy to get lost in the unrelenting stream of new stuff. Make sure to optimise your tags, AB test your capsules, make the description informative and easy to understand and make the most out of the ratings. A good one's always nice. A bad one can often be overturned. Make an effort to overturn the negative ones - engage in conversations, fix the bugs, make the player feel appreciated. Also, not responding to negative reviews will drag your game down in the store placement and it should be your top priority to maintain as high a position as possible.

User feedback and ratings not only reflect your game's reception but also significantly influence its visibility and success in app stores. High ratings can enhance your game's discoverability, driving organic traffic that is crucial for maintaining a positive ROAS. This organic reach can be the defining factor between a profitable game and one that struggles financially. Moreover, integrating user feedback into your development process can serve as a vital design principle, guiding updates and improvements. This approach ensures that your game evolves in alignment with player preferences and expectations, fostering a loyal user base and enhancing overall game quality.

Measuring user behavior is not trivial task but it is very rewarding, by monitoring the user behavior and interaction with your game you can be proactive and adjust your game level or update your added feature to make it more engaging to the players. To do that effectively, It’s better to collect data points like monitoring if user interaction to solve the current level is towards your designed solution if not then you have to answer some questions like: Is the solution not obvious? Is there a hole in the design and this enabled users to solve the challenge differently? Is the level is boring? are users struggling? by answering these questions you will shape and enhance your game to be more fun and appealing!

In the context of mobile games, user behavior emerges as a pivotal metric for performance optimization. A well-structured analytics should allow you to identify all relevant data points, understand patterns, and drive essential insights. Carefully plan your technical stack, incorporating custom events and parameters tailored to the genre, ensuring you gather the right insights for each game's unique needs.

While discussing metrics and identifying the most effective ones, adopting a holistic perspective is essential, focusing on the broader narrative of what's occurring. By merging a big-picture perspective with detail-oriented data analysis, you'll gain insights framed as stories that can help you optimize games.