Understanding Player Spending Habits
Whales, Dolphins, and Minnows in Free-to-Play Games
Navigating the complex dynamics of different spending profiles within free-to-play games is a challenging yet crucial aspect of game design and monetization strategy.
As a leader in game development, understanding the spending habits of your player base is fundamental to the success of your F2P game. This understanding allows you to design effective monetization strategies and create a balanced and engaging experience for all players.
In the F2P model, even though the game is free to start, players can potentially spend an infinite amount of money on in-game purchases, from cosmetics and convenience items to power-ups and exclusive content.
Therefore, providing a variety of enticing purchase options, while ensuring that non-paying players still enjoy a fair and competitive game, is crucial for sustaining a healthy, active, and profitable game community.
Player Profiles
Whales, dolphins, and minnows are terms used to describe different types of players based on their spending habits. They come from the world of casino gambling and are used to categorize players by how much they spend.
Whales: These are the high spenders in F2P games. They make up a small percentage of the player base (usually less than 1%), but they contribute a significant portion of the game’s revenue. Whales are often willing to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on in-game purchases.
Dolphins: These players spend money on the game, but not nearly as much as whales. They might make a few in-app purchases here and there. Dolphins typically make up a slightly larger portion of the player base (around 10–15%) and a moderate portion of the revenue.
Minnows: These are the majority of players (around 85–90%). Minnows spend very little or no money at all on the game. Despite their size, they contribute a small portion of the revenue. However, they are crucial for the game’s ecosystem because they provide a large player base that helps keep the game lively and competitive.
The exact percentages and dollar amounts can vary significantly depending on the game and its monetization strategy. However, the Pareto principle often applies to F2P games: 80% of the revenue tends to come from 20% (or often fewer) of the players.
Spending Habits
The highest-spending players, like the whales, can contribute a disproportionate amount of the total revenue. For instance, in some games, the top 10% of the spending players may account for up to 50% of the revenue.
As developers strive to cater to whales, dolphins, and minnows, it’s important to maintain an ecosystem that encourages fair and engaging gameplay for all players.
How can game developers maintain a fair competitive environment in F2P games while still providing high-value, exclusive options for ‘whale’ players?
In the context of ethical game design, how can developers cater to ‘whale’ players without encouraging unhealthy spending habits?
As more games shift to a F2P model, what innovative strategies can be implemented to attract and retain ‘dolphin’ and ‘minnow’ players without compromising game balance or revenue?
The key to achieving this balance lies in offering diverse in-app purchases tailored to different spending profiles, ensuring the game is enjoyable and competitive for both paying and non-paying players, and fostering a robust, vibrant community. Data-driven decisions, guided by careful analysis of player behavior, can assist in creating targeted strategies for each player segment.
However, a crucial consideration in all this is ethical game design. Developers need to ensure they’re not promoting unhealthy spending habits, especially among the whales, who tend to spend the most. Offering high-value, exclusive items for whales should be balanced with considerations of player well-being and the overall health of the game community.
Designing a F2P game to accommodate different types of paying profiles requires careful planning and a nuanced understanding of player behavior.
1. Offer Variety in In-App Purchases (IAP)
Each player group has unique spending habits. Therefore, it’s essential to offer a variety of in-app purchases.
- For whales, developers could offer expensive, exclusive items or packages that offer a unique status, powerful advantages, or rare collectibles. These high-value items keep whales engaged and incentivize them to continue spending.
- Dolphins might be more interested in occasional deals and moderate-value purchases. These could include time-limited special offers, season passes, or mid-tier items that enhance gameplay without being excessively expensive.
- For minnows, the focus should be on small, affordable purchases that provide good value. These could be cosmetic items, small convenience features, or consumable items like resources or energy refills. Also, the game could offer one-time starter packs that provide good value to incentivize minnows to make their first purchase.
2. Provide a Balanced Game Experience
While it’s crucial to monetize a F2P game, it’s equally important to ensure that non-paying players or those who spend less can still enjoy the game and feel competitive. If players feel they cannot progress or compete without spending money, they may leave the game, leading to a less vibrant game community and fewer potential customers.
Therefore, it’s crucial to strike a balance where spending money can speed up progress or offer cosmetic or convenience benefits, but where skillful play and time investment also allow for meaningful progress. A well-balanced game creates an environment where all types of players can find value and enjoyment, whether they’re spending money or not.
3. Foster a Healthy Game Community
All players contribute to the game’s community, and a strong, active community can itself be a draw for players to spend more time in-game (and thus potentially spend more money). Developers can encourage this by offering features that support social interaction, like guilds or clans, chat features, cooperative gameplay features, and regular community events. They can also actively moderate the game community to ensure a positive, welcoming environment for all players.
4. Use Data to Understand and Respond to Player Behavior
Developers should use analytics tools to understand player behavior better, identify what works and what doesn’t, and make informed decisions. This data can guide everything from game balance adjustments to the timing and content of special offers. It can also help identify when players might be ready to transition from one spending category to another (for example, from a dolphin to a whale) and guide targeted marketing efforts.
5. Regular Updates and New Content
To keep all players engaged and willing to spend, developers need to regularly introduce new content and updates, providing new goals and challenges. This could include new items to purchase, new gameplay features, new levels or areas to explore, or new events to participate in. Regular updates keep the game fresh and engaging for all types of players.
Final thoughts
Creating a successful F2P game that caters to whales, dolphins, and minnows involves providing a variety of purchase options, balancing the game so it’s fun for both paying and non-paying players, fostering a strong game community, making data-driven decisions, and regularly updating the game with new content.
As the free-to-play model continues to dominate the gaming industry, the importance of understanding and accommodating different player spending profiles cannot be overstated. The success of a game hinges not just on its ability to attract high-spending players, but also on its capacity to engage and retain players across all spending levels while maintaining a fair and enjoyable gaming environment.
Get my FREE 5-Day Email Course: Agile Foundations for Game Developers!
Previous articles:
