The biggest challenge is convincing the millions of players who are already invested in their favorite games to come and spend time in yours. If you are lucky enough to capture their attention at launch, you can lose them just as quickly as you gained them if you don’t have the right live events framework in place. 

Putting that framework together isn’t easy. The mobile market is incredibly competitive and there’s a growing number of AAA console and PC developers entering the fray. You’ve got hundreds of potential competitors to keep an eye on, thousands of live events to track, and constantly changing trends in the mobile market affecting gameplay mechanics, monetization and user acquisition. 

All of this might sound difficult, but it shouldn’t have to be. We launched the GameRefinery Live Events Tracker to provide an all-in-one platform that allows users to monitor their competitors and live events in real-time, get daily updates, and analyze the features and mechanics proving the most popular with players. 

Here’s everything you need to know about using the Live Events Tracker to get the analysis you need to build the best live events framework for your mobile games, no matter what genres you operate in. 

Using the Live Events Tracker for competitor analysis

Adding games to the Live Events Tracker 

The GameRefinery analysts analyze more than 100 games daily across PC, console, and mobile, and we’re always adding new games to the roster. Analysts are experts in the games and genres they report on, ensuring all updates are fully contextualized with all the information you could ever need. 

Updates are also supported with screenshots showing everything from character skins and ad implementation to IAP offers and general gameplay. This means you’ll always have a thorough understanding of what’s happening across the live events space without having to play the games yourself! 

When you first access the Live Event Tracker you can pick up the games you are interested in by clicking on ‘Edit Select Games’ button. If you’re unsure of which games to add, we’d recommend using the tabs at the top to filter games by their category, genre and/or subgenre. 

Building a list of games that share your genre can help you keep track of what your competitors are doing. Alternatively, you might want to build a list of games in a completely different category for live event inspiration. The choice is yours!

Navigating the Live Events Tracker

Once you’ve compiled a list of games to monitor, the Live Events feed will display live events in order of start times, with the most recent events at the top. Even if you’ve only selected a handful of games to monitor, you’ll likely have a lot to sift through. For example, selecting four games from the 4X category brought up more than 150 live events across two days! 

You’ve got several options when it comes to filtering this list down even further: 

Filter Events by Event Name

This is great if you already know the event name you want to track but aren’t sure when it took place or how to find it. Event names are displayed alphabetically according to the date range you have set in your calendar. 

Filter Events by Event Type 

Looking for monetization inspiration? Fancy a battle pass refresh? Or maybe you want to introduce new gameplay mechanics, such as guilds and minigames, but don’t know where to start? 

Filtering events by event type is a great way to get LiveOps inspiration and learn more about the gameplay mechanics and monetization features that are making the biggest impact on revenue and user acquisition. 

Filter Events by Event Duration

If you’re struggling to decide how long you should run specific event types for, filtering events by event duration is a great way of getting a feel for what your competitors are doing. If you’re planning a major anniversary event, try searching for 17-27 days or even 32+ days to see how other games have celebrated important milestones. 

Event duration provides even more analysis when it’s combined with the ‘event type’ filter. If you’re unsure whether two days is long enough to trial an IAP offer, filter events by selecting ‘monetization – IAP offer/bundle’ and the ‘two-day duration’ to see what else comes up. You can keep extending the event duration to get a better idea of the average time that most IAP offers and bundles run for. 

You can also use the ‘event stats’ tab to gauge the average and max duration of specific event types. 

Using the ‘Game Calendars’ Tab to roadmap LiveOps campaigns 

If you notice your daily revenue is down on specific days, your competitors might have a successful live events framework in place that’s pulling spend away from your game – maybe it’s a great IAP offer that’s taking place at the beginning of every week. 

You can use the ‘game calendars’ tab in the Live Events Tracker to reveal LiveOps roadmaps for your competitors, helping you make more informed decisions on when to launch specific events and features. It’s also a great way to understand how to interconnect events for further engagement, such as running smaller IAP events to support a larger event taking place across a long duration. 

The game calendars tab can help you: 

• Track the duration of specific live events 
• Check how many live events are running at once across specific time periods 
• Get daily updates on the most popular IAPs and how much they cost 
• Identify gaps in the LiveOps calendars for your competitors by seeing which event types they aren’t running.
• Identify new event types introduced to the game

This makes the ‘game calendars’ tab a great way to plan your LiveOps framework, as you can gather insight that will help you understand the best time to launch events and dates to avoid if larger competitors are already dominating certain calendar dates with specific event types. The download and revenue % changes will also help you determine whether the events you’re analyzing were a hit with players. 

If you want additional insight into any of the live events displayed on the calendar, just click the event name to open the event description panel. This panel includes a detailed event synopsis with event mechanics and rewards (if relevant). 

Analyze trending features and gameplay mechanics 

While the ‘game calendars’ tab provides an overview of everything happening in one game, you can use the ‘compare events’ tab to get side-by-side comparisons. Updates are displayed down the left-hand side of the screen according to their event type, so this is a great way of finding out which event types are being used by your competitors the most, and where the gaps might be so you can introduce new event types into your own LiveOps calendar. 

While seeing the frequency of specific event types and their duration is useful, you also need to understand how much of an impact they’re making on revenue. This is where the’ event stats’ tab comes in, allowing you to filter event types by their popularity, revenue value, and revenue change. 

While the filters mentioned above provide a quick and easy way to see which event types are proving the most popular, you can get even more insight by clicking on the event types displayed on the left-hand side. 

The daily statistics can help you understand the best days to launch event types, such as IAP offers, while the performance view shows growth over time. If an event type is on an upward trend but you haven’t implemented it in your game yet, don’t hang around! Similarly, if an event type you implement is on the downtrend and you’ve noticed it isn’t engaging your users as much as it used to, it might be time to switch up your LiveOps strategy and replace it with something more popular. 

Using the GameRefinery Motivational Driver Framework to Improve Player Retention

The Live Events Tracker works best when combined with other elements of the GameRefinery platform, such as the Motivational Driver Framework. This framework can guide live event implementation, ensuring any new features you add align with your players’ motivations. Alternatively, you can use it to introduce new features that appeal to wider motivations to attract new players. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the GameRefinery Motivational Driver Framework, it’s a data framework that breaks down mobile game players into 12 motivations across six categories: social, mastery, management, expression, exploration, and escapism. You can find a complete overview of the framework in the link above, but in short, this framework reveals which motivational insights are aligned with specific genres and subgenres. 

Most games in the US market listed on the GameRefinery platform have a Motivational Driver Framework attached to them, which means you can quickly understand the player archetypes a game attracts. For example, 47% of Candy Crush players fall into the ‘Thinker’ archetype, a category of players who ‘enjoy playing games for the occasional brain teaser or other cognitive challenges to take their mind off other things.’

Looking at the player motivations for Candy Crush, we can see how they compare to the average player motivations for a match3 puzzler. Candy Crush taps into all of the motivations that players would expect from a match3 puzzler but introduces social PvP elements to appeal to players who are motivated by competition. 

With this knowledge, we can jump back into the Live Events Tracker, open up the filter tab, and select PvP competition to get a better idea of how Candy Crush is appealing to this player segment in its LiveOps calendar by using competitive race events, solo tournament leaderboards, and weekly contents. 

This is a great inspiration for traditional match3 puzzler developers who want to explore new live event features and developers in other genres who want to introduce new gameplay mechanics. You can also switch this and reverse it; if race events are growing in popularity amongst match3 puzzlers, racing game developers could break up their core gameplay loop by introducing match3 minigames. 

Pay attention to the Motivational Driver Framework when using the Live Events Tracker. It can open up new ways to interpret and integrate live event data. 

Top tips for building better live events 

While GameRefinery’s Live Events Tracker provides a complete 360 view of the most significant live events taking place in the mobile market, we wanted to share some additional tips to support you on your LiveOps journey. 

Give players new ways to experience the games they love

Player retention is a constant challenge in a market as competitive as mobile gaming. Use your live events framework to trial new gameplay mechanics and monetization features to see what sticks. Use the Live Events Tracker to guide the features you add and if you manage to find a hit with a limited-time event, consider bringing it back in the future or introducing it as a permanent gameplay mode. 

Decide how to measure the ROI of your live events 

Of course, you’re always going to be mindful of download figures and daily revenue, but have you considered the other ways to measure the ROI of a live event? If you want to expand into new markets, use the Live Events Tracker to analyze live events from games in your target markets, and consider how you could introduce these gameplay elements into your own live events framework. 

Make sure you pay close attention to player sentiment during your live events too. While it’s easy to know whether or not a new update has been a hit from revenue spikes, you should also monitor community channels such as forums and Discord servers to get a better idea of how our players are responding to events – especially if you’re introducing new gameplay mechanics that might be considered outside of your core gameplay loop. 

Be careful not to eat into your own revenue streams with too many events running simultaneously

While running multiple events at once is a great idea, you need to consider pricing structures and duration so you don’t end up competing against yourself. The Live Events Tracker can reveal which IAPs in other games are proving popular (as well as revealing their price points) and give you an idea of the ‘sweet spot’ when it comes to running multiple events. 

Don’t overlook social elements

A growing number of traditionally single-player games are adding social elements into their live events framework. As well as appealing to the motivations of players who like social gameplay, social events are a great way of improving player retention and fostering a community around your game. You can use the Live Events tracker to get an overview of which social features, such as guilds, hangout areas, and co-op gachas, are proving popular. 

For more support with your Live Events framework, make sure you check out our free webinar: Maximizing Player Retention and Engagement with Live Events 

The post How to Build Better Live Events with the GameRefinery Live Events Tracker appeared first on GameRefinery.

Choosing who takes home the trophies is never an easy task, but this year was particularly challenging for our analysts to judge. We saw games igniting player competition and social interaction through innovative LiveOps events, collaborating with beloved IPs to launch all-new gameplay experiences, weaning narrative threads into their content plans, leveraging seasonal themes to keep things fresh, and more.

If you’re struggling with new ways to build on your existing LiveOps strategy, our award winners (which include the likes of Scopely’s Monopoly GO!, Tencent’s PUBG Mobile, and Riot’s League of Legends: Wild Rift) might just have the answers you’re looking for. In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into some of our choices and reflect on the key takeaways.
What makes a great collaboration event?

We’ve written a great deal in the past about the tremendous impact collaboration events can have on player engagement. Theming a live event around an IP that is aligned with the interests of your player base can reengage lapsed players, bring in new players from the IP you collaborate with, and boost monetization through the sale of IP-based skins, characters, and other items. But what makes for a truly great collaboration event?

With around 40% of the top 10% of grossing titles on the iOS US Market incorporating promotional collaboration events into their LiveOps strategies, picking out the best is difficult. All these crossovers come in different shapes and sizes too, spanning everything from fashion brands, automotive, anime, TV, movies, and even other video games.

Some of our favorites last year included Free Fire looking Marvel-ous with a Spider-Man crossover, Roblox turning pink with Barbie, and even Nier: Automata’s android 2B slicing her way into NIKKE: Goddess of Victory. However, two collaboration events in particular really captured our attention.

PUBG Mobile used the Dragon Ball IP to give Battle Royale an Anime Makeover

First up was PUBG Mobile x Dragon Ball Super Z, which won our Best Collaboration Event Award for the midcore market. This enormous event ran for almost two months, from July 13 until September 4. It incorporated all the usual features in these events, including a battle pass, various gacha, and new cosmetic items themed around the partner IP. However, it was selected for the award because of its comprehensive Battle Royale: Dragon Ball Super game mode.

The mode gave PUBG’s regular map an anime-themed makeover, with players flying across the battlefield as iconic Dragon Ball characters like Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza – each of which had unique abilities and upgrade trees. Players could also pick up tons of Dragon Ball Super-themed loot scattered around the map, including armor and Tactical Capsules. There were also portals players could use to fast travel, as well as “wind whirls” used to fly up in the air.

While the mode followed the same “last man standing” principles of battle royale, playing it felt like a genuinely authentic Dragon Ball experience. It demonstrated a rich understanding and appreciation for the IP that transformed what it meant to play PUBG.

Stumble Guys uses IP in live events to introduce new gameplay mechanics

Over on the casual Market, Stumble Guys fumbled home with the other Best Collaboration Event Award. Unlike the rest of the nominees, Stumble Guys stood out for not just one collaboration event but an entire year of them. Throughout 2023 (and now 2024), Stumble Guys has become a collaborative machine, introducing players to everything from MrBeast, Barbie, Monopoly, Spongebob, Nerf, Rabbids, and many more.

Impressively, every collaboration event is just as well executed as the last and acts as the basis for each new season, complete with a battle pass and a wide range of premium cosmetics. Every collaboration introduces a new map themed around the nuances of the IP, many of which have become a permanent addition for players to enjoy, such as:

• The Barbie crossover was based on a neon pink Dreamhouse map where players race to fetch Barbie’s favorite accessories. 
• kuFor the Monopoly collab, players sprinted past GO on a map inspired by the classic board game.
• The Nerf collaboration turned Stumble Guys into a first-person shooter, with players wielding their own Nerf blasters in-game. 

Stumble Guys understands how to do a collaboration event right and does it right so frequently that it’s hard to pull yourself away because you want to see what it will introduce next. More notably, it’s enabled Stumble Guys to fend off tough competition, with NetEase’s Eggy Party and Tencent’s DreamStar struggling to drum up the same consistent engagement without their own stumbling multiverse.

The power of social and competitive events

Building a sense of community is one of the best ways to retain players and drive engagement. Mix that with a sense of competition, and you have an irresistible combination. That’s precisely what Monopoly GO! achieved with its Partner Events, which took home the Best Social Event Award for the casual Market. 

In these events, a player invites four friends to join them. The catch is that rather than simply becoming a team of five, the main player is partnered up with each friend separately to create four teams of two. Each partner event has a theme (like baking a cake, for example), with each team of two having its own target to reach (done by playing the game and building up event currency). Players receive a special reward if they complete the event with all their partners, encouraging them to make the most of their team-ups. 

Social events with a joint goal are usually based around guilds with upwards of 40 players working together. While that’s relatively great performance-wise, because Monopoly GO!’s partner events are much smaller, players typically take these on with their close friends, who are much more likely to encourage them to keep going. This impact is demonstrated in the game’s performance, with the first Partner Event resulting in a surge in daily revenue last July. Similar boosts can be seen each time the Partner Event returns, which is around once a month. 

We’re not the only ones who took note of the partner events either. Royal Match, Phase 10, Clockmaker, Project Makeover, and other mobile games have taken inspiration from Monopoly GO! to launch their own iterations of partner events – many of which have been successful.

Experiment with live events and identify engaging new gameplay features

On the midcore side, the winner was League of Legends: Wild Rift’s Arena. In this 2v2v2v2 event, fights are broken down into several 2v2 rounds in small arenas, with each team having a limited number of lives. Players are restricted to using a limited pool of randomized Champions, adding an element of strategy to the gameplay. It’s monetized with an Arena Perk Pass that offers extra benefits, such as a new match-to-match progression layer with Seasonal Augment upgrading. 

However, the reason the Arena was selected as the winner was because it’s a standout example of the benefits of LiveOps experimentation. Arena was actually first introduced to League of Legends: Wild Rift in November 2023 as a temporary addition. It proved immensely popular with players, resulting in increases of over 100% in Daily Revenue in the US iOS market in the days following its initial introduction (according to our Live Events Tracker), prompting Riot to bring it back as a full-fledged mode in February this year. 

Just like Riot, you can use limited-time events to test new gameplay ideas and features. Once you’ve identified an interesting concept, incorporate this into your content pipeline as a small temporary mode or feature. If it really resonates with players and drums up a lot of excitement, you can build the concept out further and then bring it back as a permanent feature. This way, you’re only heavily investing in features you know are going to be a hit with your players. 

Seasonal events that are more than just a reskin

For mobile games, seasonal events like national calendar days and religious holidays present an easy opportunity to introduce exciting new content (think spooky Halloween levels or festive winter cosmetics) that will drive player engagement. However, with over 90% of the top-grossing 100 iOS games using seasonal events to boost revenue, you need to do more than just reskin an existing event to stand out from the crowd.

Phase 10 is one game doing just that, which is why it won our Best Seasonal Event Award for the casual market. Its month-long Christmas event incorporated a wide range of different gameplay features that offered something for everyone. 

The main event, Winter Wonder Roll, was centered around a board game where players rolled dice to move their token forward and gain materials to customize holiday rooms – combining a minigame and renovation elements. At the same time, there were also signs of hybridization with casino elements (players could spin a slot machine for bonus rewards), alongside co-op tasks for guilds and a dedicated holiday leaderboard, all of which offered additional rewards. 

According to our Live Events Tracker, the game experienced download spikes after the event began on 7 December, particularly in the run-up to the New Year, with increases of around 160% between 30 December and 1 January. In terms of monetization, the event was bolstered through IAP offers that were available throughout its duration. Some of these, such as the Buy 1 Pack & Get 1 Free (Christmas) Bundle, which contained dice event currency required for the event and other goods, boosted daily revenue by as much as 20% while active. 

If you’re considering expanding your own Seasonal Events, remember that not all holidays demand the same attention. The mobile game audience comprises billions of players based in different parts of the world with varied interests and beliefs, many of which will only celebrate certain occasions and national calendar dates. For example, Thanksgiving will be of massive importance to many US players, but as it’s not celebrated elsewhere, it won’t interest players in other regions. In other words, identify which holidays will resonate with your specific audience and plan accordingly. 

Incorporating Narrative elements into LiveOps

Like a gripping book or TV show, many mobile games use captivating stories and engaging narratives to forge a long-lasting connection with their audience. Once players become invested in the fate of the characters and the game world they inhabit, they’re much more likely to return to see what happens next. By incorporating narrative into a LiveOps strategy, developers can keep players coming back time and again as they unveil each new chapter of the story.

June’s Journey, the casual market winner of our Best Use of Narrative in an Event Award, took a rather bold approach to story-driven live events. With over 70% of the top grossing 20% of games on the US iOS market implementing a battle pass, it can be hard to do something new in this area, and yet here we have a narrative-driven battle pass.

The Travels Pass works like any other battle pass: you progress in the main game and slowly move along the reward track. The difference here is that the game’s story is tied to the battle pass; the only way to see what happens is to progress through all the layers. It’s worth noting that players still receive in-game rewards, which are increased for those who opt into the game’s premium reward layer, but the main driver is the actual narrative (the same for both paid and free players).

Admittedly, June’s Journey isn’t the first game to attempt a narrative-driven battle pass. The merge game, Gossip Harbor, also launched a successful battle pass with storytelling elements. However, this wasn’t to the same extent as in June’s Journey, but players still received small nuggets of dialogue as they progressed through. Most notably, those players who opted for the premium layer got to see an exclusive part of the story if they progressed far enough. 

What can other developers learn from these battle passes? Introducing other elements into live events doesn’t necessarily mean building completely new modes or expansive gameplay mechanics. For example, what if narrative was tied to a daily login or co-op event? With some imagination, you can do a surprising amount with existing features to stand out.

Summarising the biggest LiveOps lessons

Whether it’s boosting downloads, bolstering revenue, or driving overall engagement, each of our 2024 Mobile GameDev Award winners demonstrates the impact an innovative LiveOps strategy can have on a mobile title. If you’re considering sprucing up your own live events based on the work of our trophy holders, here are the key things you need to keep in mind:

• Use IP to create new gameplay experiences: PUBG’s Dragon Ball Z crossover was so successful because it used the crossover to provide an experience that genuinely transformed the game for existing players while also layering on the fan service for newcomers attracted to the IP. To replicate that success with your collaboration events, at the very least, you must have a solid understanding of the franchise you intend to bring into the fold. 
• Smaller can be more impactful for social events. By focusing on smaller groups of friends rather than large guilds, like in Monopoly GO!’s Partner Events, players will feel more like part of an actual team and become more invested in the goal.
• When it comes to seasonal events, research which national calendar days and holidays will be most relevant to your player base. For the most important dates, look to Phase 10’s expansive Winter Wonder Roll for inspiration. For others, a simple reskin of a previous event could suffice.
• If you’re looking for more unusual ways to drive engagement, injecting narrative design into existing elements can effectively get players invested in your game’s world. June’s Journey and its story-driven battle pass are good examples of how storytelling can be introduced into preexisting gameplay features.

For more on our Mobile GameDev Award Winners, listen to Episode 54 of the Mobile Games Playbook. Be sure to also check out the complete list of winners and nominees for even more ideas for your own Live Events.

The post What We Can Learn About LiveOps From the 2024 Mobile Gamedev Award Winners appeared first on GameRefinery.