Where players quit
Learning paths through this topic
Which buildings do players fail to place again and again, and how many get stuck?
When a building cannot be put down because of an unclear rule (not enough road, wrong ground, too close), players try again and again. A plain failure count shows the busy kinds, not the confusing ones. This entry shows how to find the building that traps people.
How long players linger at each city size, and where they leave instead of moving on
A city that grows in stages has slow stages and quick ones. Average play time hides which stage drags and which one people never get past. This entry shows how to measure time spent per stage and the share who end the game inside it.
Check your unlock prices for a wall where the wait suddenly becomes unbearable
If every upgrade costs three times the last one, there is a moment where saving up takes far longer than anyone will sit through. You can find it before players do, from the prices and income alone. This entry shows how to compute the waits, including money left over.
How many players give up on a quest, without counting the ones still working on it?
Take all players who accepted a quest and did not finish it and you get a scary number, because it includes everyone who is playing right now. This entry shows how to separate people who gave up from people who simply have not finished yet.
Which kind of shortage makes players leave soonest after they hit it
Running out of food, power or money feels very different, and players react differently too. Counting shortages is easy, but comparing them fairly is not: some players have barely started when the data ends. This entry shows how to rank shortage types honestly.
After which failed attempt do players stop trying?
A hard boss is fine if people keep trying and a problem if they leave after the third death. Counting how many leave after each failure shows the exact point, and avoids the mistake of comparing groups of very different size.
Was the player waiting for a build timer when they left, or truly out of things to do?
Two players can close the game at the same moment for opposite reasons: one is happy to come back later, the other hit a wall. Mixing them hides the problem. This entry shows what to record at the moment of leaving to tell them apart.
After a disaster, how many times do players reload the save before they give up?
Some players answer a bad event by loading an older save again and again. That is a sign the event felt unfair, and it often ends in leaving. This entry shows how to read the reload habit so you can tell a fair setback from a rage trigger.
Five goods ran short at once: which one is the real cause the player could not fix?
In a game with production chains, one missing material drags others down, and the log shows all of them short together. Blaming the loudest one sends you fixing the wrong thing. This entry shows how to find the shortage that started it, even when the chain loops back.
Do players who accept the bailout loan really quit less than those who ignore it?
A rescue offer for broke players looks great in the numbers: those who took it stay longer. But part of that is an illusion, because people who left right away never had time to take it. This entry shows how to compare the two groups fairly.
A player left one city alone but plays another: do not count that as lost
Builders let you keep several cities or save slots. An old save nobody touched for weeks looks like a player who quit, even when the same person is busy in another one. This entry shows how to count lost players and abandoned saves separately.
Find the longest stretch where nothing happened in a match, and who left in it
Some strategy matches stall: both sides turtle, nobody attacks, and the clock keeps running until someone quits out of boredom. This entry shows how to find the quiet stretches from a simple event log, and how to tell a mid-match lull from the player simply stopping.