Ideally I want to double both of these stats or at least 1.5x them.
With session time specifically, I know that mobile users are more likely to have lower session time in general due to the nature of the devices and how they are often used on the go or in conjunction with other activities the user is doing. However, I am also worried that it may be caused by a performance issue. Our average FPS is quite lower for mobile and tablet as well:
But I am also not sure if this is normal for other games that don’t suffer from low session time / D1 retention since there are no benchmark stats for average FPS.
What do you think? Do you think these stats are caused by gameplay issues or more related to performance? What does average FPS look like across your games?
They seem to be judging from similar games I have tested. I also have not gotten complaints from any of the mobile users in my discord about button location so far
I am not sure what other games are like with this stat but 53% definitely doesn’t look great.
As for our onboarding funnel, we have a tutorial which guides players through the basics of gameplay and after the player completes their first wave, they are taught how to purchase their first weapon and upgrade it, along with opening their first weapon crate. Our biggest dropoff by far is from completing the first wave to purchasing their first weapon. I am not sure if this is because players just don’t want to go to the shop, don’t see the tutorial arrows, aren’t interested in getting a new weapon, or just leave the game before they even get a chance to visit the shop. I have some ideas in mind to try and remedy this though.
the new session retention is to make sure majority (50%) will get pass 3:00 (the longer the better) for Qualified play through rate and thus Home Recommendation. Gradual drop at the beginning, not a sharp cut, so no serious problem like crashing with the tutorial it seems.
Completed First Wave is at 65% which is fair. Assume they may go into 2nd wave after Opened Starter Crate? You may add a step for the 2nd wave. So in case you want to delay the purchased/upgrade weapon and make the 2nd wave comes first, you have the data for comparison before hand.
Anything particular happened between the Completed first wave and Purchased First Weapon? May add some finer steps to see if they just feeling ‘that’s all’ and quit, or they are confused where the shop is like you suspect. Make sure you have the funnel steps to confirm your theory and changes.
Yeah I think the main reason for the massive dropoff from completing the first wave to purchasing their first gun could currently be caused by the amount of UI they have to click through. This could be indicative of a larger issue of the game having confusing UI that we need to redesign, but in the meantime I am experimenting with changes such as having the shop immediately open to the weapons menu after the player completes their first wave. I want to try and introduce them to the lengthy progression system as soon as possible to give them goals to work towards, and hopefully prevent them from getting bored.
The mobile and tablet markets are vastly different compared to computer and console. The retention rate on phone in specific are low due to the pick up and play nature of mobile gaming. Tablets are harder to carry with you every day, so you have a slightly more loyal player base on tablet compared to phone.
Additionally, low frame rates in FPS games will most certainly turn players off, especially if they are outclassed by users on more intuitive control layouts like controller or keyboard and mouse. If the player base is large enough, consider making mobile only servers so all players have a fair game against other mobile players.
TL;DR: Mobile platforms naturally have lower retention, and performance / hardware limitations are harming your game.
Our game is not competitive, as it is a PvE shooter, so I don’t think mobile-only servers would do anything beneficial. Performance is still something we are looking at though so that could potentially improve things for us.
However I am curious about what other games’ session time or retention rates look like on mobile. I feel like <7% D1 retention is pretty bad even considering that phone and tablet are naturally going to have lower retention rates. Same with session time, ideally we need to increase our overall average to ~15-16 minutes but mobile and tablet are holding us back a lot, so if they are always going to be this low then I am unsure of how to improve it.
