Player Engagement Levels: How to Build a Loyal Community

With so many games out there, how can you keep your players hooked? With their attention split across many titles, your game could be forgotten very quickly.

By understanding your game’s current player engagement levels, you can set realistic targets and take the right steps to meet them.

The ultimate goal? Build a loyal community and create a game players can’t stop talking about. Let’s explore how to get you there.

Why Player Engagement Levels Matter

In short, player engagement levels are essential for:

• Boosting player loyalty
• Retaining players
• Improving long-term monetization and revenue
• Building a community around your game
• Making your game culturally significant
• Dictating your company’s business strategy.

And if these factors don’t convince you, look no further than the following statistics.

Player Engagement Levels: Key Statistics

These numbers show the current player engagement levels across player segments:

• About 40% of mobile gamers play almost daily.
• 30.8% of players cite the “enjoyment of the game” as a key factor for choosing a game.
• In 2024, Roblox saw a combined total of 13 million hours of engagement among players above 13, an 11.76 million increase since 2019.
• They also saw 7.5 million hours of player engagement among players under 13, increasing by 5.85 million hours since 2019.
• Almost 80% of 2-18-year-olds are gamers.
• They spend 30% of their entertainment time on gaming.
• Young players (13-17 years old) play about 9.5 hours per week on average. 
• Older players (45 or older) spend less time playing games (about 2.5 hours per week).

These figures demonstrate the importance of creating game experiences that hook players early. But it’s also about building loyalty over time through impactful interactions and updates. 

But boosting engagement levels is no simple task. Ironically, there are “levels” to how players engage with your game. 

Engagement Levels: Key Stages

According to game designer/producer Tadhg Kelly, there’s a hierarchy of player engagement levels. The following phases start from the bottom:

1. Distraction: Players play your game because they’re bored, but can drop off any time. 
2. Amusement: The game has a charming feature that’s retaining some players.
3. Connection: The game connects emotionally (creates escapism or motivates players).
4. Investment: Players find the game profound on a deeper level and are now invested.
5. Culture: The game becomes culturally/socially significant. People want to not just play it, they want to talk about it.

Through these phases, you can start developing strategies to increase player engagement levels.

5 Strategies to Boost Player Engagement Levels

Your game’s current phase of player engagement requires a specific set of strategies. Let’s break down each phase.

1. Distraction: Smooth Onboarding

During the “distraction” phase, the key strategy is onboarding. Teaching new users how to play your game should be straightforward and intuitive. It’s an opportunity to create a strong first impression.

Your game’s onboarding should cover the game’s rules, controls, goals, and core loop in a clear, simplified way. We recommend replacing reading and watching resources with interactive tutorials.

Real-Life Example: In Candy Crush Saga, players get interactive tutorials and breakdowns of game mechanics.

2. Amusement: Add Joy and Variety

After onboarding, you need to keep your players entertained. In the “amusement” phase, your game should provide consistent moments of joy. 

Some strategies include polished gameplay. This involves smoothening your game mechanics and controls, balancing challenges, and tightening animations.

To spice things up, consider adding surprising twists, new features, and game modes.

Real-Life Example: Players get to explore the large, open-world sandbox of Minecraft. They can also create virtually anything.

3. Connection: Interaction and Personalization

To connect your players to the game:

• Create interactive storytelling: Give your players choices to influence the story’s outcome. Character development, ethical dilemmas, and offshoot storylines can immerse players.
• Add social features: Create player communities with chat, multiplayer modes, and leaderboards. These features can promote camaraderie and competition.
• Personalize content: Tailor content to player preferences through personalized game mechanics, challenges, and customization options.

Here are some real-life examples of each strategy: 

Strategy	Real-Life Example	How?
Interactive storytelling	Neva	Interactive narrative and emotionally moving side-scrolling adventure.
Social features	League of Legends	Players can interact with each other through voice chat and team play.
Personalized content	Grand Theft Auto V	Players can customize items (weapons and vehicles).

These three strategies make game experiences more meaningful and engaging for players.

4. Investment: Rewards and Progression

To get players more emotionally invested in your game:

• Create rewards systems: Incentivize continued play with new levels, virtual rewards, and in-game currencies. These help create a sense of accomplishment.
• Create a sense of progression: Give players long-term goals that give them purpose and deeper commitment to the game.

5. Culture: Events and Social Media

To create a buzz around your game and make it culturally significant:

• Organize live events: Build anticipation in your game with tournaments and other live events. These are great opportunities for fresh content, new interactions, and new goals.
• Enable user-generated content: Let players create new characters, items, and levels.
• Let players share on social media: Encourage players to share their experiences on game-centric platforms like Twitch and Discord. 

Strategy	Real-Life Example	How?
Live Events	Genshin Impact	Has regular livestream events to keep the game community-focused.
User-Generated Content	Fortnite	Through its Island Creator Program, Fortnite pays players to generate content.
Sharing on Social Media	Hogwarts Legacy	Players can use photo mode to share spellcasting battles.

Regardless of your game’s current engagement phase, you need to constantly focus on the following two strategies…

Leverage Player Feedback and Analytics

It’s essential to get an idea of what your players think about your game at all stages of their journey.

For gathering player feedback, consider using:

• Community platforms like Discord servers, forums, and social media.
• Feature request boards like UserVoice and Canny.
• Survey and poll tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and Google Forms.

Also, you need to analyze player behavior. This involves understanding the why behind your players’ opinions and decisions.

To analyze player behavior, you should use:

• A/B testing tools like Adobe Target, AB Tasty, and Firebase A/B Testing
• Analytics platforms to track metrics like retention rate, drop-off points, and session length. Examples include: Game Analytics, Unity Analytics, Keewano, and Adjust.
• Heatmaps and playtesting tools to monitor how players engage with your game. Examples include Lookback and PlaytestCloud.

You can build a dialogue with your players by creating a feedback loop. It should be:

• Qualitative (opinions, comments, complaints)
• Quantitative (numerical data).

This will also help you optimize and evolve your game organically.

Start Leveling Up Your Player Engagement

At the end of the day, if you want your game to be successful, you need to build strong player engagement levels. To achieve this:

• Understand different engagement phases
• Use relevant strategies
• Consistently monitor player feedback and behavior. 

With simple onboarding, social features, and interactive storytelling, you can start to build a loyal community.