Blockchain Games Show Average Retention Rate 75%
TechnologyBit News Today2 min read
Across all games, cumulative user growth was 118% in 2019. Ethereum finished 2019 as the leading blockchain, accounting for 44% of the category's total wallets. EOS closely followed with 41%, while TRON and Ontology trailed behind with 9% and 4% of total wallets, respectively. TRON was excluded from the analysis as none of its games could sustain a large enough user base during 2019 to provide useful data.
Retention Rate Successes
The 2019 retention rates highlight that individual blockchain-based games had quite a range of monthly retention. Over 75% monthly retention was sustained by some games, while most games had several months when their retention rate was greater than 50%. Ethereum-based games fared better in building their retention rates, partly due to their longer presence and how they interfaced with the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum's most popular games include My Crypto Heroes, which boasted nearly 5,000 monthly active unique wallets. Users stayed engaged with My Crypto Heroes through the daily log-in rewards provided by its Prime monthly subscription. However, 0xUniverse faced a major setback when a gas fee doubling in September led to a collapse in its retention rate to 33%, causing it to lose over 2,000 monthly active unique wallets. Yet when the gas price normalized in October, many players returned, contributing to a rise in new wallets that month.
Challenges and Developments
Congestion across the EOS ecosystem caused by the EIDOS token airdrop prevented many wallets with only small amounts of staked EOS from accessing the network. EOS Dynasty maintained retention rates between 54% and 71% for most months before falling sharply to 36% in December, shedding over 7,000 wallets. However, it still ended the year with nearly 4,000 retained wallets and an overall active wallet total of more than 6,000, making it the most popular blockchain game.
Other games like Crypto Sword & Magic and Prospectors saw their retention rates affected by EOS' network congestion in November and December. Apart from the month following its release, Prospectors experienced declining retention and closed 2019 at less than 50%.
Expectations and Strategy
The sector is anticipated to experience a strong rise in retention in 2020 as more games adopt traditional retention mechanics like daily, weekly, and monthly rewards or VIP subscription models. Games with retention rates below 50% will need to rethink their strategy, while those in the mid-60s should aim to surpass 75%, following the example of My Crypto Heroes and CryptoDozer.
