Top Reasons Behind Uninstalls
Let's admit; most of the free-to-play payers are lazy, unpredictable and often biased. It is like having a free coffee at the shopping center to taste one of the new advertised brands while expecting nothing special. To get their attention with any source of ways is hard and it is even harder to make them download your games. But let's say you have managed to do that and they have joined your community. You are expecting them to become a loyal player or even convert into payers in time. But of course, a good amount of those players never reach that moment and uninstall or forget the existence of your game.
As designers and product owners, It is important to accept this reality but it is even more important to analyze and find the reasons behind it. It is very common to judge things quickly but when you dig into each player's journey, we are all surprised by how different the reasons can be. So let's have a look at those common triggers that makes people leave your well-crafted universe.
Technical Issues
Let's start with the obvious one. Without getting through a proper technical soft launch, releasing a game is just pure suicide. If you want to burn your money, It is your call. But determining each minor issue and fixing them before targeting thousands of players is very critical. You can't (and in many cases, you won't) find all bugs and problems by yourselves or even with your QA team. So don't be afraid to gather a small number of players to gather technical feedback and fix the major issues before throwing your marketing wallet to the screen.
Download/Install Size and Optimization
One of the very common and expected issues that (especially) new studios face is optimizing the download & install sizes. Based on the game you have designed, your game will be generating hundreds of assets to show the beautiful work you have created. But this always comes with a cost. Not optimizing the ingame graphic assets and releasing the game like that will not only hurt the performance of the game but also the growth part. The conversion from store view to download will be drastically lower than you have expected and you will just burn your well-earned budget.
Let's say you have somehow managed them to download over 500MBs (while your competitors' games are around 200 to 250). If you haven't tested your game on low to mid-tier devices (Like 6-7 series iPhones), you will still face serious heating and low FPS problems which will quickly lead to churn. So before starting to build your world (especially 3D), better check the market to set a goal and review the similar games to see how they handle some of the technical parts that you may face as well.
Login Process
This one is becoming less and less of an issue but It is still possible to see some weird login options in games. Remember, users are here for free and they will expect zero struggle to play their first session. To do that, having a smooth login process like a Guest option is very important. You will be surprised how many players may drop out at this moment.
Saturated Market & Misleading Marketing
Before converting a game idea into a product, all partners need to be aligned on one thing: which part of the market do we fit and what things we do differently compare to competitors? If you can not answer these 2 questions confidently, this will hurt your marketing campaigns pretty bad. Getting into a saturated market is always a risky move. But if you think it is worth to shot with your somehow new game design approach, no shame on that. Just be sure that the players you target will experience something new when they open the game for the first time.
Parallel to this one, It is also very common to get players with misleading marketing materials. Welcoming users into your game with lower CPIs is everyone's dream. But having them experience a totally different game compared to videos they watch is a bold move. Lately, we see many puzzle games introduce new mechanics that are not related to their core design just because of good performing marketing videos. This necessity becomes a huge issue as you persist to get new users that way. So, be careful what you show. :)
Complexity & Difficulty Balance
You may be thinking like your game is a good fit for your target audience. But if you are experimenting with new ways of game mechanics (instead of just copying a game and putting a new skin on it), you may face some unexpected responses from players. And these responses may be about the complexity and difficulty of your game.
Users (including me) getting more impatient with the way they approach games. And this is a very serious challenge for designers to find a balanced and fun journey. To break the boring aspect of any game progressions, we may choose to add some moment-to-moment gameplay ideas to surprise players but it doesn't always work as it is intended. So while designing the core loop and meta layers, it is always safe to know your player base and observe their needs. Who are they, what do they expect from a game like this, how other games work and what do they offer etc...These questions need to have clear answers under your GDD.
Pay2win & Paywalls
All players may have different reasons to continue playing your game. But no matter what the reason is, there is one obvious thing that will make them instantly churn and uninstall your game, which is the feeling of necessary payment to proceed. There is a thin line between buying time and buying power in many freemium games and the balance between these determines how well your game works.
It is worth remembering that 90% to 95% of your player base will never spend a dime in your game. The tricky part is to earn their loyalty and convert them in time by introducing a fun and well-balanced experience. Users mostly pay because of these reasons:
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These reasons can be multiplied but the idea is: grabbing user's loyalty, letting them experience the game and offering them the right option at the right time is the key, not throwing banners and pop-ups mindlessly.
Community Issues and Lack of Friends
The social core is getting more and more important in any game in the market. Letting users interact with one another (direct or indirect) surely helps to increase engagement metrics. It is also one of the key elements for users to invite their friends to the game. But not managing the community well may lead to some unexpected outcomes.
Users get often angry due to many reasons. Bugs, difficulty, lack of events, unbalanced competition, pricing problems, etc...As product owners, it is very critical to review user feedbacks and solve these issues asap. But it is more important to get in touch with players to let them know we are listening. Without any appearances, (in social media pages, ingame announcements or community pages) users will likely become toxic to both developers and other players which will cause an environment that no one wants to be a part of it.
Having or not having friends is also connected with the same topic. You, as a player, invite your friends to create a more immersive experience and the game becomes more fun. Rewarding players who play together (both emotionally and with ingame rewards) is important to maintain that. Growth of course is a huge part of any game publishing but organic traffic will always be the king and making users invite and keep their friends inside is the key.
Repetitive and Boring Sessions
When you look at successful games, you will realize that in each session, there is always something to do. It is important to surprise players each day or serve them new reasons to play is important to break the repetition of any game. All games can be repetitive at their cores. The tricky part is to increase the number of "wow" moments with each session to avoid uninstalls due to sessions becomes boring quickly.
Breaking the repetition in multiplayer games may be a bit harder compared to single-player games. Because in multiplayer games, experience heavily depends on player interactions. For content consumption, multiplayer games might be a safer bet but it is not easy to create a fresh challenge each day, especially for players who are still active after 90 days or more. Live operation and feature updates become more important on this matter to maintain the fun gameplay. So it is essential to track engagement KPIs and come up with necessary solutions to keep their sessions going.
Content Consumption & Lack of Updates
Similar to the previous topic, users will only stay in the game as long as if there is something to do and grants value. Any casual+ game's goal is to stay in the market for years to come with users who play for years. But it is of course not as easy as it sounds.
Before designing a game's MVP, considering the future of the game is also important. Games that have high retention and LTV metrics are the ones that deliver regular and exciting updates regularly. The frequency of these updates may change based on the game's genre but one thing is the same: updates come on the right time with the right content. Without offering a new road map to users to follow, you can't expect them to play one more day. That's why it is critical to track the consumption of the game's content and elements for all users (segmenting users here may also help).
First User Experience Issues
Did you know that you may lose 30% of your installs on their first day? Of course, you know, that's why you have designed a proper onboarding experience. Right? Right...
Jokes aside, even if you ignore everything above, this one is a must for any game in the market from hyper to hardcore. Designing a proper first user experience is not an easy task. That's why there are some key things to follow here:
Conclusion
I'm sure we can add more reasons to this list like competitors, seasons, region or platform-specific reasons, etc. But we all need to understand one thing here: uninstalls will happen, and will happen quickly. What we should do as game companies are to accept this issue and find the reason behind it. These reasons might be plenty and may not be easy to address. That's why playing our games as an active player and sometimes as a new player to experience what they experience is an essential way to approach this. Without becoming a player, managing our players is just pointless.
Thanks for reading.