📊 End-of-month and what-if scenario analysis for gaming studios
This dashboard helps gaming studios to forecast monthly KPIs, test what-if scenarios, and make data-driven monetization decisions, just in time before end-of-month (EOM) close.
Key metrics for EOM performance
Daily active users (DAU): The number of unique users who engage with a game in a 24-hour period.
The graph above shows fluctuating daily active users with peaks reaching 200,670 on April 19, 2025. On the other hand, the biggest dropdown occurred the next day, April 20, 2025, with 96,572 users.
Monthly active users (MAU): The total unique users who accessed a game within the past month.
ARPPU & ARPDAU: Average revenue per paying user and average revenue per daily active user - key monetization metrics.
The time-based trends show ARPPU (yellow line) fluctuating between 7.5-14 throughout the year, with significant spikes in December 2024 and March 2025. ARPDAU (orange line) remains consistently low (around 0.2-0.3), indicating a small percentage of paying users.
Session length & frequency
Average length: The average time users spend per gaming session last month, measured in minutes.
Average frequention: The average number of sessions per user last month, indicating how often users return to play
Positive correlation between session length and frequency (users who play longer also play more often).
The trend graph shows session length (orange) increasing over time from approximately 6-7 minutes in April 2024 to 10-12 minutes in April 2025, with a major spike to 22 minutes in December. Session frequency (pink) has remained relatively stable between 2-3 sessions throughout the year.
The scatter plot demonstrates a strong positive correlation between session frequency and length - users who play more frequently (3-4.5 sessions per day) tend to have longer sessions (15-22.5 minutes). This indicates loyal users are also more engaged users.
Conversion rate
Percentage of daily active users who become paying customers.
The conversion rate trend has gradually improved from 2% to 3-4% over the year, with notable spikes reaching 5.5% in December 2024. This shows growing success in monetizing the player base, with a positive upward trend in early 2025.
Bar chart shows the highest conversion rate by platform at 3.9%, followed by iOS at 3.4% and PC at 3.0%. Android has a moderate 2.8% conversion, while Web performs worst at 2.1%. This suggests prioritizing development for Console and iOS platforms for monetization.
VIP revenue
VIP revenue share is percentage of total revenue generated by VIP/top-tier players.
VIP revenue share fluctuates between 70-87% throughout the year, with the highest peaks in early 2024. The overall trend shows slight decline, suggesting growing monetization among non-VIP players, which indicates healthier revenue distribution.
The scatter plot reveals an inverse relationship between VIP dependency and total revenue. As total revenue increases (moving right on the x-axis), VIP share tends to decrease to a more sustainable 0.5-1.0 range, indicating broader monetization success.
Retention rates (D1, D7, D30)
Retention rates: Percentage of users who return after specific time periods (D1=1 day, D7=7 days, D30=30 days).
D1 retention improved from 50% to 80% by early 2025. D7 retention grew from 20% to 35-40%, showing better game stickiness. January 2025 saw exceptional 97% D1 retention, likely from a successful event or feature release.
IAP revenue shows spikes in August 2024 ($1.8M) and December 2024 ($3M), coinciding with likely game updates or seasonal events. Overall baseline increased from $500K to $1.3M monthly.
The heatmap reveals Console and iOS maintaining the highest D7 retention (0.5-0.6 range) across all months. January 2025 shows exceptional retention improvement across all platforms (darker blue). Web consistently shows the weakest retention (0.15-0.25), suggesting platform-specific issues.
Churn rate
North America shows the lowest churn rate at 2.4%, while Latin America has the highest at 3.6%. Asia Pacific demonstrates moderate churn (3.0%). This regional variation suggests tailoring retention strategies by region, with special focus on Latin America.
Reactivation rate: Percentage of previously inactive users who return to your game.
Ad monetization metrics: Data on revenue and effectiveness of in-game advertising.
Reactivation rates range from 1.5-1.9% across regions. Middle East and Asia Pacific lead with 1.9% peaks. All regions show upward trends in early 2025, indicating successful win-back strategies or engaging new content.
Ad revenue peaked in January 2025 ($180K) with highest eCPM ($6.5). Overall eCPM grew from $3.5 to $5.5+ year-over-year, showing improved ad monetization efficiency despite revenue fluctuations.
What-if scenario
What-if analysis enables gaming studios to simulate future outcomes by adjusting key variables (monetization strategies, user engagement, content updates), providing critical insights for data-driven decisions before EOM closes and helping teams prepare contingency plans for market fluctuations.
VIP notification boost scenario
Surprise bonus pack scenario
These two scenarios test moneymaking tactics for your top players - sending more notifications to win back inactive VIPs and offering small surprise bonuses to big spenders to see if that investment pays off.
This graph shows the consistent daily revenue ($100) generated by increasing push notifications to VIPs by 20%, with the orange line tracking cumulative additional revenue reaching $698.54 after 7 days; our simulation indicates this would reactivate 8 high-value players with an impressive average revenue of $85.81 per reactivated VIP.
The graph illustrates a consistent daily net revenue impact of approximately $1,000 from offering a $5 surprise bonus to the top 1% of VIPs, with the cumulative impact (orange line) steadily increasing to reach over $7,000 by the end of the 7-day period.
Weekend engagement drop scenario
VIP tier impact forecast
This scenario predicts how a 10% decline in player activity during weekends would affect your revenue.
This strategy tests how offering special promotions to your mid-spending "dolphin" players affects overall revenue.
The graph illustrates the daily and cumulative revenue impact of a 10% engagement drop on weekends, showing no revenue changes Monday through Friday (gray bars at $0), but significant losses on Saturday and Sunday (red bars at approximately -$214 each), with the orange line showing cumulative revenue impact reaching -$428 by week's end.
The graph shows the forecasted daily revenue impact of offering a 10% value bonus pack to mid-tier spenders, with highest revenue boost on day one (over $4,000) that gradually diminishes over two weeks, while the cumulative impact (orange line) steadily rises to approximately $14,000 by the forecast end.
Summary of weekend engagement drop scenario:
VIP tier impact forecast summary:
4. Sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis identifies which metrics have the biggest impact on your revenue, helping you prioritize improvement efforts for maximum ROI.
The graphs show that conversion rate is your most powerful revenue lever, with a 1% improvement generating $21.44 in additional revenue (highest blue bar in Image 2), followed by D1 retention ($17.15) and D7 retention ($10.72). Image 1 illustrates how progressive improvements (1%, 3%, 5%, and 10%) in these top three metrics yield increasing revenue impacts, with a 10% conversion rate improvement delivering the highest return at over $200.
Sensitivity analysis summary:
Metric impact ranking (Revenue $ per 1% change):
Focusing on top 3 metrics:
Early warning system
An early warning system tracks your game's performance against key targets to identify problems before they impact month-end results.
The graph shows how current metrics compare to EOM targets, with D1 retention exceeding targets (121.2%), VIP revenue share on track (99.9%), conversion rate slightly underperforming (87.3%), and alarming shortfalls in total revenue (21.9%) and DAU (3.7%). The color-coding (green, orange, red) highlights which metrics need immediate attention.