Read this month’s Headline Release and Market Watch
Streamlining Story Modes to Target New Players
Last Day on Earth’s Survivor’s Path overhauls the app’s previous Story Mode(released just one year ago) by placing all of its tutorial and story missions into a single battle pass progression. The update helped increase revenue by a whopping 23% MoM, although it doesn’t appear to have had a comparable impact on downloads or daily active users.
Survivor’s Path introduces three key changes with the goal of increasing retention among new players. First, the feature simplifies the UI by displaying the entire progression on one screen, which makes it easier for players to track their progress. Second, it reduces mission requirements, which lets players progress faster than in the previous tutorial mode. Third, by offering two premium battle pass tiers for this initial progression, Survivor’s Path encourages early spending at an unusually high price point, which may help to lock in high-spending players.
To increase new user retention, first-time user experiences (FTUEs) should get players engaging as quickly as possible and break complex systems down into series of simple tasks with frequent rewards.
For more information on designing FTUEs that retain new players, check out our FTUE Toolkit. If you don’t have access to our Toolkits, email Brett Nowakto learn how to subscribe.
Release Trends
Mission features, such as Survivor’s Path, are the top performing feature type in the core market by far, with the highest median and average revenue impacts MoM and the third lowest standard deviation.
Read our full analysis of Survivor’s Path in this month’s Headline Release.
Market Watch
Soft-Launch and Breakout Apps
Idle RPG Super Snail has been in the top 50 RPG apps since its launch in early August. The app offers a distinctive blend of cartoony graphics, offbeat humor inspired by memes, and a progression that lets players evolve their snail.
Black Clover M, by the developers of Garena Free Fire, is a turn-based RPG based on the Black Clover anime. Its core loop revolves around completing dungeons to acquire and upgrade equipment. The app emphasizes its narrative through cutscenes from the anime and fully voiced dialogue from the show’s original cast.
Read our complete teardowns of these apps in this month’s Market Watch.
Innovative Feature and Event Releases
In Brawl Stars’ Hypercharged Unleashed, players compete in 3v3 matches with access to a new ability that temporarily boosts their stats. Winning matches unlocks the ability for a specific hero across other game modes.
In Cookie Run: Kingdom’s Trial Grounds, players complete missions to earn upgrade materials for a special event item. Equipping certain heroes with the item unlocks a more powerful version of the hero’s skill.
In Identity V’s Hide and Seek, two teams compete in hide-and-seek matches. The hiders can disguise themselves as objects, and the seekers have a skill that directs them toward the nearest hider.
Read our full teardowns of all notable releases in this month’s Market Watch.
