"Ultimately, a shift in behavior of a fraction of a percent of a single mobile game’s audience can make a profound difference to growth, profitability, retention, and more."
NUDGING TO SPEND
Making video games is ultimately an exercise in understanding and encouraging certain player behaviors – and nowhere is that more true than in the mobile realm. Win streak systems, for example, can motivate players to make performance boosting in-app purchases to maintain their run of success, hooking into their desire for accomplishment. ‘Social catalysts’, meanwhile, might let players see their performance stats compared to others, motivating spending to improve abilities and increase standing. Those nudges can certainly impact a game’s success, and are established parts of the mobile ecosystem.
But what if we could be more precise, meticulous, and granular with in-game nudges? That is already something that is entirely possible – and already being elevated by the arrival of sophisticated machine learning-powered game optimization tools. And in the current mobile market, where IAPs are increasingly critical to revenues, small changes can make significant differences.
Considering that only 1.83% of mobile gamers make an in-game purchase, a typical free-to-play game that could convert just a fraction of a percentage of users to spenders could have a monumental impact on its bottom line. The potential impact of nudges around IAP is profound.
nudgetheory
