A recent survey into the behaviour of mobile gamers has found a number of startling statistics. The key findings were that two thirds of gamers gave up playing any particular game after just one day and the average spend among players was just 45 cents per quarter. Only 2.2 per cent of the gamers actually spent anything in game and nearly half the total revenue came from the top 10 per cent of spenders.
The report, from app testing company Swrve (via Recode), kept track of over 10 million players for a period of 90 days. Swrve’s network consists of more than 30 games titles. Clients of the company include the likes of Activision, Epic Games, Gameloft, WB Games and ZeptoLab so we aren't talking about no-name, niche titles here. Swrve is a company dedicated to helping clients achieve maximum in-app revenues.
The report points out that spending a lot of money to just get users to download your new game might be wasted cash and effort. Not surprisingly, it's more complicated than that. Swrve offers clients active marketing tools and the ability "to tune and A/B test changes to your app in real-time so you can deliver the best possible mobile experience to your customers". This way app-makers can see what is and isn't working in their apps.
Recode interviewed Swrve CEO Hugh Reynolds following this new report's publication. Reynolds stressed that getting your app downloaded is just the first step. "It’s a bit like a first date. If it’s going to be effective, it needs to be effective quick," he said. As evidence of this the survey also revealed that 53 per cent of all the spending in a game happens inside the first week after users start playing.
A European game studio insider, also talking to Recode, thought that the Swrve survey results were pretty much as he expected, adding that anything like 40 per cent retention by game downloaders on day two is "a sign of a real hit".
