Benchmarking

Quantitive Method:
Explore how players feel and behave through interviews, observations, and open-ended feedback. (with optional quantitative metrics)

Best Stage: Late development → Live / post-launch

Primary Goal: Compare two variants to see which performs better

Effort: Moderate - High

Overview

Benchmarking in game research is the process of comparing your game’s performance, player experience, or design elements against industry standards, competitor titles, or past versions of your own game.

It's used to set goals, evaluate progress, and identify areas for improvement based on how other successful games perform or how your game performs over time.

Retention Metrics (e.g., D1, D7, D30)
Session Length
Onboarding Completion Rates
Player Progression or Drop-Off Points
Monetization KPIs (like ARPU or conversion rates)
Usability and Satisfaction Scores (e.g., SUS or GEQ)

How to do it

Choose What to Measure – Pick relevant metrics or UX aspects.
Find Comparables – Use public data, competitor studies, or tools like GameRefinery, Sensor Tower, or App Annie.
Run Your Tests – Use playtests, surveys, or telemetry to collect your own data.
Compare and Interpret – Identify gaps and areas of alignment or improvement.

Resources

Seif El-Nasr, Magy, Anders Drachen, and Alessandro Canossa, editors. Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data. Springer, 2013.

Drachen, Anders, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke, editors. Games User Research. Oxford University Press, 2018.