Hi,
I have had a bit of success with my game, Pong Arcade, usually maintaining around 10-30 CCU. However, even after several ads and content updates, the home recommendations are always killed, and the player count quickly returns to this number. It seems likely that this is due to abysmal retention stats, which are at 4.24% (D1), 0.58% (D7), and 0.15% (D30) - all far below the 50th percentile. The engagement and monetization stats do not seem to be part of the issue, as they are either above the 50th percentile mark, or relatively close to it.
Even after doing research on what might improve retention, I do no understand the problem, as it seems to me that I have implemented the proper mechanics:
- There is a large variety of different games, increasing the playtime value.
- Players get new tokens as daily rewards and idle payouts, encouraging them to join at least one more day.
- Pong Challengers serve as a quest which should probably take longer than a day to complete.
- There are many achievements to collect for each game in the arcade.
- Leaderboards and multiplayer games should vastly increase the long-term value, as players try to get top scores and increase their PVP rating.
- There are many prizes to purchase with tickets, and some paid-access rooms.
- Graphics settings decrease the chance of players leaving early due to lag.
- A very short tutorial shows basic controls upon joining and entering a game, decreasing the chance of players getting stuck and leaving prematurely.
Despite adding these features gradually and responding to player feedback, the retention constantly stays around the same low value, in the 2nd percentile. If anyone could help figure out why the retention stats are so low, it would be greatly appreciated.