Two-thirds of mobile gamers put down a game and never pick it up again after the first 24 hours, according to a new survey. The data collected by app testing firm Swrve comes from a report by tech news site Re/code. Swrve said its survey accounted for the behavior of more than 10 million players over a 90 day period starting in November.
Swrve CEO Hugh Reynolds said that the results mean mobile games have to make a very strong first impression to stand a chance at retaining users longer than just a day.
"It's a bit like a first date," Reynolds said. "If it's going to be effective, it needs to be effective quick."
For users who did stick around, 53 percent of their total spending was done in their first week with the game. That said, the survey found that only 2.2 percent of users spend any money in mobile games, and that a tenth of those accounted for 46 percent of spending.
Those figures line up closely with another survey published by Swrve in February, which found 50 percent of cash from in-app purchases came from 0.15 percent of players.