Retention, engagement, monetization.
As video games become more difficult to successfully launch, and even more difficult to grow into a hit, these growth metrics are becoming harder than ever to achieve.
Video games aren’t like other digital products; they aren’t just there to help you check your credit score or touch up your photos.
They exist to fulfill a distinct purpose: fun. This purpose may manifest in infinite ways, but at the end of the day video games are there to provide enjoyment.
It’s easy to get caught up in the data and metrics, but let’s not forget why we started making games in the first place — to create something amazing that people will love playing.
This purpose gives game developers a massive advantage over other digital products.
It’s an advantage that can make building engagement in video games far more effective and beneficial, both for game developers and their players.
Why is it an advantage? It all comes down to human understanding, and why we engage with certain experiences.
Tools like Elaris now make understanding this human psychology accessible to any developer. Instead of expensive research, simply ask about your audience’s motivations and get instant insights that drive meaningful engagement.
What is Gamer Engagement?
Before we dive in, let’s give a quick definition of gamer engagement.
While retention measures whether someone continues to play your game for a set period of time — daily, weekly, or monthly — gamer engagement data measures how active they’ve been during that time.
You can’t have retention without gamer engagement. But high retention rates can mask low player engagement rates.
If someone plays your game every day, but they only do it for a minute, that level of data won’t show up in your retention metrics. You’ll be going a mile wide, but only an inch deep.
On the other side of the coin, high gamer engagement is a strong predictor of high retention.
This is why it’s essential to take engagement rates into account when measuring game success.
How do you create engagement?
It’s simple — just give your players what they want and what they need.
Challenges of Driving Player Engagement in Game Development
Just kidding. Driving gamer engagement is clearly one of the most difficult challenges game developers currently face — especially as tens of thousands of new game experiences are released every year.
If it was simple, we wouldn’t have seen the cascade studio closures, layoffs, and game cancellations that have come to define the last few years.
Game studios are battling a host of issues at the moment, but we’ll say it: many of these high-profile cancellations were caused by studios relying on the data of the past to drive the engagement of the future.
Legacy Data Won’t Cut It
Almost all digital products rely on behavioral, transactional, demographic, and contextual data to drive engagement.
With this, they get a quantitative understanding of how people use their products.
But demographic and behavioral data is not indicative of who an audience is, and what people need to feel understood and affirmed.
After all, aren’t we so much more than our behaviors and demographics?
Upstream lies a world of human understanding that video game studios can use to their advantage.
When you understand people’s intrinsic needs, you can design games that create real and meaningful player engagement.
What do players feel like before entering your game? What motivates them to play your game? Do players want to relax? Be excited? Socialize? What are their values? What is their personality like?
Answering these human-centric questions is the key to achieving deep audience understanding, and it’s what the best developers are doing today.
How Do You Find the Answers?
Industries have tried. It hasn’t been easy.
You can buy in-depth studies on consumer behavior from Forrester and Gartner. They’re lengthy, time intensive, expensive, and don’t assess your specific audience psychologically.
You can hire UX researchers or use survey tools to understand your players. But with average researcher salaries topping $125k, building in-house teams is expensive, and surveys only capture moments in time.
Now there’s a better way: Elaris lets you explore player psychology through simple conversation. Instead of months of research, ask questions like “What motivates puzzle game players?” or “How do competitive gamers differ psychologically?” Get instant insights for free, with premium features available with a subscription.
Clearing a Path Through These Obstacles
This is where Elaris comes in.
Instead of expensive research teams or complex platforms, Elaris makes psychological audience insights accessible through natural conversation. Ask about your players’ motivations, personality traits, and values, and get instant insights that inform engagement strategies.
This psychological understanding goes far beyond behavioral and demographic data. It reveals the intrinsic motivators that drive sustained engagement, making player-centric design remarkably straightforward.
Further Reading: Understanding Consumer Psychology: The Science Behind Solsten
Understanding an audience’s psychology reveals a new world of engagement opportunities. Rather than focusing on impermanent extrinsic motivators like points and prizes, knowing the stable intrinsic motivators behind people and their desires gives you the ability to understand what they really want — and the actionable insights to create it.
Learning about the psychological motivators among an audience, from status orientation and fearlessness to a sense of accomplishment or fear of losing, can inform and enrich every stage of the development process.
Take altruism, for example. Understanding this trait lets developers know if players would rather help each other, or be pitted against each other.
Creators are then empowered to put features in place that encourage teamwork and help others into their game, aligning with the players’ psychology. These features authentically fit the specific game, rather than being copied from a competitor’s game. By giving your players what they want and need in this way, engagement follows.
Understand your players’ psychology in seconds, not months
Traditional player research takes weeks and costs thousands. Elaris provides instant psychological insights through simple questions: “What personality traits predict high engagement in my genre?” or “How do social players differ from competitive players?”
How to Drive Player Engagement Using Solsten
Orchestrate Highly Relevant Events
Before planning your next event, ask Elaris: “What psychological traits drive engagement in my game’s genre?” One studio discovered their audience valued collaboration and altruism, leading them to design team-based events with shared rewards. The result: 15% spend increase and 10% engagement uptick lasting two weeks.
Want to understand traits like altruism in your player base? Ask Elaris: “How do altruistic players behave in multiplayer games?” Explore player psychology.
Acquire Optimal Users
Instead of guessing your ideal audience, ask Elaris: “What psychological profile predicts high-value players in strategy games?” One studio used these insights to create resonant ads, achieving 50% lower CPI and 20% higher D7 engagement.
Design Audience-Specific Mechanics and Features
It’s easy to fall into stereotypes when it comes to audiences and game genres. But time and again, developers are surprised when their high-value player segments don’t match their assumptions. This has wide-ranging implications, especially when developing game mechanics and features.
For example, a cross-platform sandbox MMO was preparing to launch when they discovered that the most valuable players in the entire space were not the typical 25-35 year-old male, but actually highly competitive, highly social females. Fortunately, before going live, they were able to course correct and make sure that the game mechanics and features were inclusive of and resonating with the high-value player segment.
Personalize Offers Based on Player Traits
Personalization clearly has an impact on purchasing decisions, but personalizing based solely on behavior and demographics misses huge opportunities to keep your audience engaged.
For example, imagine you’re selling a new sword in your game. You can use Solsten’s API to personalize the offer. To a group that is high on dominance, the offer could say “buy this sword and crush your enemies.” But for a different group of altruistic players, the offer could say “buy this sword and help your friends.”
Getting to the core of what audience wants, and being able to provide a tailored approach, is critical to driving player engagement. When you have a clear picture of your audience’s core motivators, personality traits, aspirations, and more, you can turn those insights into deeply human-centric digital experiences.
Turn player insights into engagement results
Stop guessing what drives your players. Start asking Elaris about their psychology, motivations, and preferences. Get instant insights that inform event design, user acquisition, and feature development.
FAQ: Gamer Engagement and Player Psychology
What’s the difference between player retention and engagement?
Retention measures whether players return to your game over time (daily, weekly, monthly), while engagement measures how actively they participate during those sessions. You can have high retention with low engagement — players who log in daily but only play for a minute. High engagement, however, is a strong predictor of sustained retention.
How does psychology differ from behavioral data in understanding players?
Behavioral data tells you what players did in the past, while psychology reveals why they did it and predicts what they’ll do in the future. Demographics and behaviors are surface-level. Psychology uncovers the intrinsic motivators, values, and personality traits that drive sustained engagement.
What psychological traits should I focus on for my game?
It depends on your genre and audience, but key traits include altruism (do players prefer helping others or competing?), status orientation (do they seek recognition?), and social vs. solo preferences. Tools like Elaris can help you discover which traits matter most for your specific audience through simple questions like “What motivates players in puzzle games?”
How can I understand my players’ psychology without expensive research?
Traditional player research requires months and costs thousands, but AI tools like Elaris make psychological insights accessible through conversation. Simply ask questions about your audience — “What personality traits predict high engagement in strategy games?” — and get instant insights from the world’s largest psychological gaming database.
Can psychological insights really improve monetization?
Absolutely. Understanding player psychology enables personalized offers that resonate with different motivations. For example, promoting a new weapon as “crush your enemies” for dominance-oriented players versus “help your friends” for altruistic players. This psychological alignment significantly improves purchase rates and engagement.
How do I apply psychological insights to game features?
Start by understanding your audience’s core traits, then design features that align with those motivations. If your players score high on collaboration and altruism, create team-based events with shared rewards. If they’re competitive and status-oriented, focus on leaderboards and recognition systems.
What’s the ROI of psychology-driven engagement strategies?
Studies show substantial improvements: events designed around player psychology can increase spending by 15% and engagement by 10% for weeks. User acquisition targeting psychological traits can reduce CPI by 50% while improving D7 engagement by 20%. The ROI comes from creating experiences that truly resonate.
How quickly can I start using psychological insights in my game?
With modern tools like Elaris, you can start exploring your audience’s psychology immediately. Ask questions about player motivations, compare different gaming audiences, or understand what drives engagement in your genre. Insights that used to take months of research are now available in seconds.
Do psychological traits vary by game genre?
Yes, significantly. Strategy game players might score high on planning and competence, while social game players might prioritize collaboration and friendship. However, there are often surprising psychological bridges between seemingly different audiences that traditional demographic data misses.
How do I know if my engagement strategies are working?
Monitor both traditional metrics (session length, retention rates, spending) and psychological alignment indicators (player feedback, feature adoption, long-term loyalty). Tools like Elaris can help you understand whether your strategies are resonating with your audience’s core psychological drivers.