One of the largest challenges faced by game developers is to tackle player churn—the rate at which players stop playing a game within a specific period of time. Churn can be measured within a day, week, fortnight, or longer.
Knowing what causes player churn on your gaming or iGaming platform can help you work on retention strategies, which will in turn positively impact your game’s revenue.
1. Outdated Content
Outdated content can severely impact your player retention. A lack of engaging content, or content that’s not regularly updated, will result in player churn as players get bored or find the game lacking.
Developers and site owners must ensure that there is engaging content from the first minute the game starts, and that it is regularly updated to keep players engaged.
2. Bad Onboarding Experience
If users sign up for the platform or game and their initial experience is bad, you’re going to see high player churn rates from the first day. Day 1 is the most important day to hook users, so it is right that you test your onboarding experience thoroughly.
For iGaming platforms, this means offering players a bonus, like a welcome bonus or free spins, and getting them engaged with your platform. Golden Panda makes use of a 200% welcome bonus in an attempt to prevent first-day churn and also has an easy-to-follow onboarding process.
Developers must also provide a clear onboarding/welcome email, and test out the signup process and initial gameplay to ensure that new players are familiar with the platform’s design and game mechanics.
3. Poor User Experience
Even if your onboarding process is sound, the entire user experience (UX) of the platform and the games need to be enticing too. Your site must be easily navigable, and load fast, and games should be easy to find. A search function will also help users find what they’re looking for.
A good UX design will create a more enjoyable player experience, where players can enjoy your website offerings without having to struggle with customer support to figure things out.
4. Near-Impossible to Progress
Your gaming platform may offer various games, like a variety of slots and casino games, or you might be offering only a single game. Whichever route you’ve taken, you need to ensure the games are a balance of challenge and fun. Games that are too difficult will see higher player churn. Even slot games that don’t pay out frequently have higher churn rates.
The best way to get the difficulty level right is to:
- Segment the players: Create different difficulty segments, like professionals, intermediates, and novices, so that all users are retained and a rookie is not facing up against an expert player.
- Offer rewards: Give little tastes of victory by rewarding smaller actions too, not just big wins.
- Progress them faster at the start: Making it easier and quicker to level up at the beginning of the game has proven to retain more players as they can see their progression early on.
5. Poor Monetization Strategies
Websites need to make money, and ad revenue is a sustainable source of income. However, you will notice a spike in churn rates if your platform is full of ads, including in-game ads. Monetization is important, but not if it is driving players away; there needs to be a balance between revenue generation and UX.
One way to monetize without annoying players is to use rewarded video ads. These ads are optional, but if a user watches them they get a reward at the end which can be used in the game.
Don’t let your user experience suffer because you are trying to make money.
6. Competition and Alternatives
The online gaming and iGaming market is saturated, with thousands of platforms offering gaming experiences. Many platforms are more niche, focusing specifically on indie games or a specific casino game. However, there are other platforms that offer every game you can imagine.
This competition and alternatives to your platform can result in player churn. For that reason, sites need to offer better branding, UX, a healthy social element, and unique gaming mechanics to prevent players from leaving to go to a competitor’s platform.
7. Technical Issues
A laggy site full of bugs and error codes will have high player churn rates. Before launching your platform, ensure you have done all the required testing for a seamless experience. Games that lag due to site performance, slow loading times, and internal links that lead to errors will result in players bouncing from your site, instantly.
Final Thoughts
Online gaming is a competitive industry, and knowing how to attract new players and retain existing ones will go a long way to boosting your revenue. It is all about creating the best possible experience for your site visitors, from the onboarding process to the games you offer. By offering better customer service, UX, use of ads, and game progression, you will stand out from your competitors and players will want to stick around.