How to soft launch a mobile game in 2024? Benchmarks & Real data inside!
A practical softlaunch guide how to save your company
How to Soft launch your game in 2024? Did something change? Of course, YES! Although the soft launch framework, in general, has not changed much, some aspects of the process are done differently.
Launching a mobile game takes loads of work. After months of development and production time, the soft launch period comes.
A soft launch will allow you to test your server infrastructure and ensure it can handle the load of a global launch.
It is important to determine the global success of free-to-play games, especially those with in-app purchases, as well as their retention profile and monetization mechanics.
This will tell you if your game will be profitable and whether you should aim for a global launch or simply kill it.
If you plan on looking for a publisher for your game, you should know that many publishers will look for some soft launch data before committing to any monetary guarantee. Therefore, doing your own soft launch is highly recommended, as it will put you in a much better position during negotiations.
In this post, I’ll cover a few items that I believe are MUSTS for anyone in or about to enter a soft launch.
How to Soft launch your game in 2024?
What is the point of releasing a new game or app to a restricted audience market in advance of a full launch?
A successful soft launch is the best way to optimize your mobile game for global launch. The Build, measure & Learn loop is a product development principle that emphasizes iteration speed as a key component in product development.
When using this principle, the goal is to release your game to market as soon as possible, measure its performance, and then iterate based on user data, repeating the loop as often as required or possible.
Soft launch stages
I like to divide the soft launch into three stages: technical, retention, and monetization. Each stage serves a different purpose, and we measure different KPIs.
You will find CPI & ROAS category benchmarks with case studies later in the article.