Game mechanics’ effects on user retention

Sammanfattning: In the era of smartphones and millions of apps just a few taps away, the effort required to retain the users in a particular app is increasing. Gamification is a relatively new tool to increase user engagement and is used in a wide range of apps belonging to categories far away from traditional games. Game mechanics, like achievements and leaderboards, belongs to the fundamentals of gamification. This master thesis examines how some of these game mechanics affect user retention. A custom made app game was implemented as an experiment to measure the effects of different game mechanics during a couple of months. The results indicate that game mechanics does affect some types of user retention but also that it might have no or negative impact of other types. In the end, the purpose of the app might play a central role in the decision making of picking the "right" mechanic. This demonstrates the importance of knowledge about game mechanics and their effects.