How to Use Game KPIs to Improve Performance and Boost Player Revenue

In a market where hundreds of games launch every day, developers can no longer rely solely on game design and quality to attract players. They need targeted marketing campaigns to ensure their titles are discovered and played. Fortunately, there are ways to track how well these campaigns perform. Key performance indicators (KPIs) help measure specific objectives and determine whether a strategy is effective or needs adjustment.

To ensure long-term success, it's important to track the right game KPIs—not just generic metrics like monthly revenue or total subscribers. While those figures matter, they don’t provide a complete picture of your game’s performance. In this article, we highlight the key metrics you should focus on, and how to optimize them to grow your game’s revenue.

1. Set your expectations on actionable data

Before tracking any data, you need to define the performance metrics that matter most to your goals. For example, if you're focused on retaining players, you should monitor your retention rate. If you want users to spend more time in your game, tracking session length is key.

These metrics are highly actionable, as they highlight areas you can improve. If players aren’t returning after their first few sessions, it might be because the game is too difficult, discouraging continued play. In this case, simplifying early levels could help motivate players to stick around. If analytics show that session length is low, it may indicate the game isn’t engaging enough. To increase session time, consider introducing new features or content to keep players invested.

Modern AI-driven analytics tools like GameRefinery, Unity Analytics, and Sensor Tower provide real-time insights into player behavior. These tools allow developers to make faster, data-driven decisions by identifying trends such as early churn, frustration points, or spending patterns.

2. Track the obvious metrics

There are a few game metrics that every game developer needs to measure to gain valuable insights into the user behavior. They include:

ARPU

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is a key metric that shows how much revenue, on average, each user generates over a specific period. It’s calculated by dividing the total revenue earned by the total number of users during that timeframe. It helps game developers understand how to better engage individual players and encourage higher in-game spending—such as through in-app purchases, premium versions, or gated features. By promoting these options effectively, game developers can work towards increasing the revenue generated per user.

Additionally, as more games shift toward subscription-based models, it’s important to track metrics like Subscription Retention Rate alongside ARPU. It gives a clearer picture of long-term player value and the sustainability of the revenue model.

Lifetime Value (LTV)

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) estimates the total revenue a single user is expected to generate over the entire time they engage with the game. This metric predicts a player's long-term monetary value and helps developers understand whether their monetization and retention strategies are effective.

Find out more about player LTV here: How To Grow Your Player LTV With 6 Unique Game Marketing Strategies.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures how much it costs to acquire a paying customer. Understanding your CAC helps you make informed budgeting decisions when attracting new users. Developers can reduce acquisition costs by using targeted marketing strategies, such as partnering with relevant influencers.

Today, machine learning plays a key role in optimizing ad spend, personalizing creatives, and identifying high-value users. Platforms like Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ leverage AI to enhance user acquisition efficiency.

Viral coefficient

A game’s relative virality can be measured using the K-factor, a standard metric that traditionally relied on tracking shares, mentions, and referrals—multiplied by the conversion rate of those channels.

However, with recent privacy updates like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, measuring organic virality has become more complex. As a result, many games now lean on community-driven platforms like Discord and TikTok to foster word-of-mouth growth and build loyal player communities.

We have shared more details on calculating the virality of your game on our blog, The Mathematics Behind Any Viral Game Marketing Campaign.

3. Define North Star metrics

From the wide range of digital marketing analytics available, game developers must identify a set of North Star metrics specific to their title to accurately measure performance. These metrics are tailored to the game and offer actionable insights, helping developers make informed decisions based on real-time data rather than generic indicators.

The choice of a high-level metric depends on the nature of the game and its business objectives. For example, if the game is offered for free and monetized through ads, a key focus should be on increasing Daily Active Users (DAU). A higher DAU means more opportunities for ad impressions, views, and clicks, directly impacting ad revenue.

For free-to-play models, churn rate is also a critical metric. It represents the number of players who downloaded and installed the game but eventually stopped playing. A high churn rate often points to issues within the gameplay experience, indicating the need for improvements to retain users beyond the initial sessions.

In some cases, the conversion rate becomes the most important metric, particularly when optimizing in-game environments for monetization. Understanding what percentage of users convert, and at which touchpoints in the player journey, helps developers refine their marketing strategies and improve player acquisition and retention.

Another valuable metric is Engagement Depth. Rather than only tracking DAU or MAU, many developers measure how deeply players interact with the game—such as levels completed, items collected, or challenges finished. This offers a more nuanced view of player engagement and helps developers fine-tune gameplay and content delivery to keep users involved.

Prioritize your metrics

Game marketers should avoid spreading their focus across too many metrics, as this can cause them to overlook the data that truly matters. Instead, it's essential to prioritize key metrics that provide actionable insights. These metrics typically fall into three main clusters: user and usage, engagement, and business performance.

User and usage metrics offer critical information about the game’s audience, helping identify which types of users the game attracts. This data allows developers to tailor and localize their games to enhance the overall user experience. Common metrics in this category include Daily Active Users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU), user segmentation, and device/OS usage.

Engagement metrics shed light on user behavior and how players interact with the game. By analyzing these patterns, developers can improve game functionality, increase retention, and fine-tune their monetization strategies. Key engagement metrics include retention rate, session duration, churn rate, and app ratings.

Business metrics help evaluate monetization efforts and user acquisition strategies, providing detailed insights that support business growth. These metrics indicate whether the game is market-fit and how revenue can be increased. Important business-focused metrics include Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

By concentrating on these three clusters, game marketers and developers can better understand performance, make informed decisions, and drive long-term success.

4. Focus on the gameplay experience

The quality of gameplay and feature updates is one of the biggest drivers of gaming KPIs. Players are more likely to spend and stay engaged when the experience is smooth, exciting, and consistently refreshed. Better features lead to longer sessions, higher monthly active users, increased in-game purchases, and stronger revenue growth.

To identify what needs improvement, developers should tap into online player communities—on platforms like Discord or Reddit—where players discuss pain points and desired features. Listening to these conversations helps studios prioritize updates and engage players by sharing what's in development.

Focusing on gameplay quality not only improves KPIs but also helps build a loyal fan base that drives long-term value through retention and referrals.

Many studios now use LiveOps to keep players engaged with ongoing content, events, and updates. For those not using it yet, integrating LiveOps can significantly boost both retention and monetization.

Start tracking like a pro

Game marketing is already challenging—adding analytics makes it even more complex. But tracking the right data is essential if you want your campaigns to be effective. Here’s a starting point to guide you through it: The Game Dev's Complete Guide to Game Marketing Analytics.

Game KPIs offer developers valuable insights into player behavior, helping them understand how users interact with their games. By analyzing business, usage, and engagement metrics, you gain the information needed to improve and optimize your game.

Game Marketing Genie is here to help you make sense of the data you’re collecting. Get in touch for effective data collection and analysis services.