Events and foreshadowed content are commonplace within match three games with high day 30 retention rates, according to App Annie.
In its latest gaming market report for Q3 2021, App Annie analysed monetization, engagement, and retention across the leading mobile games.
The report selected the five games with the highest day-30 retention from the top 10 downloaded match three titles during Q3 2021 and compared the features between each game.
The games included
- Royal Match from Dream Games, with a day-30 retention rate of 16.5 per cent,
- Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells from Zynga (16.2 per cent),
- Best Fiends from Playtika (12.2 per cent), and
- Gardenscapes (12.1 per cent) and Homescapes (11.4 per cent) from Playrix.
Matching features
Each one of these five games features in-game events and foreshadowed content, indicating that these are key features in maintaining strong audience retention.
App Annie explained that foreshadowed content provides players with previews of features, mechanics, characters, or equipment that will become available as the player progresses through the game.
App Annie claims that this technique aids in developing player expectations about upcoming in-game events and can encourage repeated play and reengagement.
Although not present in each of the games, other common features are an animated opening, card collection, daily log in rewards, and more.
Furthermore, the report indicates shared gameplay features between the five games, including block pieces, a rainbow piece, and special level mechanics.
Cube matches, first try rewards, multiple level goals and pre-play boosters are also present in four out of the five games examined.
You can read the full report here.
App Annie recently reported that throughout Q3 2021, match three games generated almost $1 billion and sits as the fifth most popular mobile game sub-genre.
