85% Of Social Gamers Quit After One Day

Gahars

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So, social games have been having a bit of a hard time, recently. Much of the initial hype has calmed down, and Zynga, one of the most prominent developers in the genre, has been having significant troubles on the stock market.

Well, this newly released data probably isn't going to make that picture seem any brighter.

[Playnomics] found that, during their study period this summer, 85 percent of all new players quit social games after only one day of play.

Sounds about right to me!

The study also found that 95 percent of players that started at the beginning of the quarter were out forever by the end of that quarter. Those left were the most likely to stick around for a bit longer. Non-churners (those that don't quit) were found to play about twice as long on that first day.
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Destructoid

Here's their findings in picture form:
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For all their bluster about being social, these sorts of games seem to have a terrible, terrible record of holding on to their player bases. Those people who do end up sticking around, however, really stick around (ironically, at the expense of their social lives). It's a relatively small percentage, but it seems to be enough to keep these games going.

If any companies are curious about why so many people leave and never return, well, they should've learned from FarmVille: You reap what you sow.
 
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frogboy

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Games like this get boring very, very quickly. They have absolutely no depth. You can't blame people for quitting.
 

The Real Jdbye

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Yeah, because to play for more than five minutes you need to refill "gems" or "gold" or whatever for $2.99+.
QFT. This is starting to become the case for (free) non-social games too, but even a lot of paid mobile games these days constantly pester you to buy in-game items with real cash (items you may be able to afford without real cash eventually, but which will basically take longer than beating the game). At least the games are fully playable without buying any of these items, but it's still annoying to be pestered to buy them.

Games like this get boring very, very quickly. They have absolutely no depth. You can't blame people for quitting.
Can't really say if I agree with this one, as I haven't played a lot of them but some of the ones I've seen do seem to have a decent amount of depth. Most of them indeed don't, however.
 

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Social games were a fad. Mobile games are similar. Neither is going to do anything to vidya in the long run and Michael Patcher will get severely butthurt about it.
 
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RupeeClock

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Supposing that there are ten million social gamers, 15% of them so play for more than one day equates to 1.5 million players retained.
I don't know what sorts of numbers they're pulling though.
 

MelodieOctavia

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Hey this game is pretty cool! Let's just build a crack house over here and...WHAT??? I need to invite 5 "Dealers" to my gang if I want to build a crack house? Or...I could spend Gangsta Bucks to build one...

Hmm...Well, I'm sure as hell not spending any real cash for this crap, and I'm not going to spam my friends for it either...hmmm...choices...
Cj7Tam.png
 
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Social games were a fad. Mobile games are similar. Neither is going to do anything to vidya in the long run and Michael Patcher will get severely butthurt about it.

I don't completely agree. I believe that mobile games are expanding the industry but the issue with "social" games is that they expect for you to have a shit ton of friends. SimCity Social is a great game but I hate it when I get stuck on a quest due to my lack of playing friends. These social games need to offer different modes for different playstyles. I'm a social butterfly BUT ONLY within my small circle. I don't go collecting friends on Facebook because I only use Facebook to keep in contact with close family and friends, not that random person from High School years ago. Once again, if these social guys could offer different playstyles, I would be more inclined to play.
 

Just Another Gamer

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Yeah, because to play for more than five minutes you need to refill "gems" or "gold" or whatever for $2.99+.
QFT. This is starting to become the case for (free) non-social games too, but even a lot of paid mobile games these days constantly pester you to buy in-game items with real cash (items you may be able to afford without real cash eventually, but which will basically take longer than beating the game). At least the games are fully playable without buying any of these items, but it's still annoying to be pestered to buy them.
This is why apps like GameCIH was made so you can get the stuff that usually needs real cash for free.
 

FAST6191

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So try for an initial hit of money if you can and design for profit with an attach rate of 15% that will probably decrease to somewhat lower as time drags on....

I fail to see how this is any different to other similar markets like music singles, cinemas and such things, indeed I am fairly sure offering several of those 15% in their main metric would be greeted somewhat enthusiastically.
 

stanleyopar2000

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true story:

Mafia Wars: oh man this seems kinda cool......*15 minutes later*

what?...there is no GUI or anything where it shows people getting shot??...all text based?!..I never asked for this.


and that my friends was the first, last and only social game I've ever played
 

The Real Jdbye

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Yeah, because to play for more than five minutes you need to refill "gems" or "gold" or whatever for $2.99+.
QFT. This is starting to become the case for (free) non-social games too, but even a lot of paid mobile games these days constantly pester you to buy in-game items with real cash (items you may be able to afford without real cash eventually, but which will basically take longer than beating the game). At least the games are fully playable without buying any of these items, but it's still annoying to be pestered to buy them.
This is why apps like GameCIH was made so you can get the stuff that usually needs real cash for free.
Yeah, but it's kind of a pain to use and doesn't work on everything. For example it didn't work on Draw Something to get infinite coins/bombs. I used it in Mega Jump to unlock everything though (I now have like 4 billion MP, lol)
It would be a lot better if Android had something like Cydia's iAPFree that cracks in-app purchases. However from what I've read it's not possible on Android which is a pity. It can be done on a per-app basis, but that involves downloading a cracked APK and I'd rather have my apps stay up to date.
 

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I like the looks of that graph. :P


But seriously: it doesn't surprise me that much. The 'free to play' model contradicts with TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Things As A Free Lunch). Developers (understandably) want to get paid for the work they do, so they want your money. Customers, on the other hand, either don't want or aren't allowed to spend real money on things*. If anything, it's more a matter of when you call the people playing your game gamers.

Think of it this way: AAA games have shareware versions, demo's, gameplay video's, reviews, and so on, and so on. Are you considered a gamer if you play, watch or read any of those? No. With social games, it's much easier to just install and play it. Assuming it even requires an installation.
If it was up to me, I'd define a "gamer" by a simple definition: did he payed anything for it?

I know it's not the best definition ever (it would make it pretty hard to be a "gamer" if you're just playing freeware and cracked games), but in this case, it would give a totally different view of this news.


While I agree with the OP that social game developers need to hold on to their player base...my disagreement is in what the playerbase IS. You really don't want to cater to people who aren't going to pay you no matter what. So just leave them out of the equation. Focussing on your customers means exactly that: those who only check you out for a free ride will be gone whenever they find something else that's free or easily hacked.


*you need to be 18 to be eligible for a credit card. And google wallet has no way to put money on it without it.
 

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I think the reason is because the games generally suck. I remember back in the day everyone was playing Dope Wars for a long time. I played it for a few days and thought to myself, why am I constantly refreshing the page for the prices of Opium X to drop to I can buy low and then refresh until prices go up so I can sell high?
 

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Yeah, because to play for more than five minutes you need to refill "gems" or "gold" or whatever for $2.99+.
absofuckinglutely 95% of the so called FREE (my fucking ass) games you can download are like this. I hardly even use my tablet any more and might as well sell the damn thing.
 

Fear Zoa

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Its the future they said, all you "hardcore" gamers are living in the past they said. We have our heads too far up our asses to see when something is a fad they said, well actually they didn't....and that's the problem. They had plenty of money and plenty of time too prepare for this inevitable decline yet they chose to put all their eggs in one basket so to speak.
 

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