We tore down Squad Busters’ economy to see how it achieves an impressive ARPDAU and what steps Supercell is taking to correct its underwhelming retention. Here are our key takeaways:
- 84% of player spend is hero shards, which players primarily earn by spending tickets to open chests earned from battles.
- Win streaks make up 33%–42% of battle chest shard rewards once players reach a streak of 10, encouraging players to spend to maintain a streak after a loss and maximize the value of their tickets.
- Despite having nearly double the ARPDAU of Brawl Stars and 9% more monthly downloads during the same period in its lifecycle, Squad Busters has a 59% lower DAU—highlighting Squad Busters’ retention problems.
- Squad Busters removed purchasable consumables, suggesting they believed consumables harmed retention by creating pay-to-win mechanics.
Economists can read the full report for our complete economy data and analysis of how Squad Busters’ economy incentivizes spend through hero upgrades, battle chest tickets, and win streaks.
Economist Roundtable: Cookie Run Kingdom’s Heroes Struggle With Long-Term Retention
In our recent Economy Roundtable, our expert panel analyzed Cookie Run Kingdom’s hero economy. You can watch a recording of the roundtable, hosted by Brett Nowak and Phillip Black, here.
Key insights from our discussion:
- Phillip Black discussed how games in this genre commonly struggle to keep players engaged after the initial progression, and Cookie Run: Kingdom has not been able to break that trend either.
- Ken Landen suggested that developers should gradually introduce new forms of hero utility (something more substantial than just a new damage type) to help keep players engaged after the initial progression.
- The panel analyzed how CR:K’s different gachas drive several behaviors throughout the player lifecycle and how primary gachas set a value anchor for other gachas.
To join future Economy Roundtables, email Brett Nowak for an invite, and join our Slack Group Channel here.