Chuka Ikokwu
Head of Analytics at Exploding Kittens, Founder and CEO of Divercity.io
Where to hear and read about Chuka Ikokwu1 episode or test
Chuka Ikokwu is Head of Analytics at Exploding Kittens and founder and CEO of Divercity.io, with a career in mobile and PC game economies that began at Riot Games. The most useful thing to learn from him is to build for retention first, on clean data collected from day one, and then use live operations and value-based pricing to turn staying players into lasting revenue.
The retention should definitely be more important than the monetization, because the monetization is heavily dependent on the retention.
Exploding Kittens, Head of Analytics on Mobile Game Retention & Monetization
Chuka Ikokwu: the story and the lessons
1Chuka Ikokwu's path into game analytics
Ikokwu joined Riot Games in LA in 2008 as an early employee. He worked on game economy, game balance and the monetization scheme. That work is where his focus on data behind design choices comes from.
He has loved numbers and games since childhood, so analytics was a natural way into the industry.
He holds that data must be trustworthy, not just present. A team can only judge a design change if the data is reliable and clean. Having data is not enough if nobody can tell what is working.
2How Ikokwu sets up game analytics
Ikokwu brings analytics in from day one, before the game is built. Most teams write the design doc and build the playable first, so analytics ends up catching up. He sees the information you collect as the biggest influence on how profitable the game becomes.
In a live game results show up in real time, so missing data means leaving money on the table. His phrase: "analytics is playing catch-up".
He tracks a short set of metrics in three groups. Acquisition covers where users come from, using LTV and return on ad spend. Retention covers day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30, session length and number of sessions. Monetization covers the share of players who pay, ad revenue, LTV and ARPDAU.
Retention and engagement are read together, and each game also has metrics unique to itself.
He estimates LTV on the back of an envelope. Take the average days a user plays over 30 days and multiply by average revenue per daily active user. Combine that with the user count to judge the game's total value.
It is a rough method that some teams used long ago, and he reminds teams that live operations means constant iteration, not fire and forget.
Ikokwu keeps his analytics stack simple: Adjust, Snowflake, Tableau. Adjust handles acquisition, Snowflake stores raw data and allows SQL access, and Tableau does visualization. His rule is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
He calls monetization the trickiest area to tool, since there is not enough data behind the many tools yet. He names Game of Whales, which runs many A/B tests because nobody knows in advance what will work.
3Why Ikokwu puts retention before monetization
Ikokwu says players who stay are the ones who pay. Early spenders are rare and not the ones to rely on. Long-term players sustain the revenue base, and monetization built on them lasts years instead of fading after launch buzz.
He cites Crossy Road's creator, Matthew Hall, who cared only about retention and trusted he could monetize returning players later. He rejects tricking people into paying.
He still wants monetization planned from the start. Retention matters more, but a game with many users and high retention can earn almost nothing if monetization is an afterthought. He has seen that happen.
At WB, a new character every two weeks pulled lapsed players back. The team announced new champions or challenges roughly every two weeks, such as a new Scorpion challenge. Engagement rose, and monetization rose with it.
He says skipping live operations is the most common retention mistake in mobile, and a saturated market makes it matter more. Only rare titles like Flappy Bird can skip it.
He points to League of Legends for a steady content plan. League of Legends has released new champions for over a decade, and that consistency built a very loyal fan base.
He compares staying relevant to a musician who can be great and still fade after they stop putting out new work. Mobile can copy the habit.
Ikokwu explains why before asking for push permission. Instead of showing the native prompt cold, tell the player crisply what they get, such as a chest unlock or new collector's item cards in Exploding Kittens. He guesses this could raise opt-in by about 50%.
Whatever would make someone return is also the best argument for letting you notify them. He calls missing push notifications the most overlooked retention tactic in mobile games.
4How Ikokwu uses pricing psychology on non-payers
His goal is to make non-payers think like payers. About 95% of mobile players still do not pay. He leans on behavioral psychology and the idea that humans are irrational by nature, using value-creation methods that have worked for decades.
He notes that many apps still do not communicate value, even though most now try.
He frames bundles as "20% more coins". If a bundle gives 100 coins for five dollars, add 20 coins and label it 20 percent more. It looks like a good deal without changing the game economy much, and it lifts conversion on that bundle.
He anchors with a very expensive bundle so mid-priced ones sell. A $1,000 bundle shown next to a $100 one makes the $100 bundle look reasonable. People who would never buy the top option buy it instead of the cheapest one.
Anchoring works partly because people like free, so it nudges them off the cheapest option.
He cites a subscription test where a clearer yearly plan tripled conversions. In a test shared by Steve Young, monthly was $25 and yearly was $179, a 50/50 split. Adding a cheaper basics-only yearly plan made the full plan, for about $20 more, look clearly better, and the split moved to 80/20 toward yearly.
Ikokwu recommends starter packs but tests them against a holdout. Give one cohort the pack and another none, whether 10% or 50% of the audience, and compare earnings. He expects the pack to win, but it depends on the game.
"You can always A/B test to prove out your theory."
He says a starter pack only works if players can spend early. If most of the value comes later, buyers wonder why they bought something they cannot use yet. Design the game so players can spend soft currency early.
His phrase: "it has to flow with your title".
Exploding Kittens, Head of Analytics on Mobile Game Retention & Monetization
A mobile game analytics lead explains why retention comes before monetization, how to set up analytics early, and which retention and pricing tactics studios overlook. It is worth hearing for the concrete practices on push permission prompts, live operations, value framing, anchoring and starter packs.
Ikokwu joined Riot Games in LA in 2008 as an early employee. He worked on game economy, game balance and the monetization scheme. That work is where his focus on data behind design choices comes from.
He has loved numbers and games since childhood, so analytics was a natural way into the industry.
He holds that data must be trustworthy, not just present. A team can only judge a design change if the data is reliable and clean. Having data is not enough if nobody can tell what is working.
Ikokwu brings analytics in from day one, before the game is built. Most teams write the design doc and build the playable first, so analytics ends up catching up. He sees the information you collect as the biggest influence on how profitable the game becomes.
In a live game results show up in real time, so missing data means leaving money on the table. His phrase: "analytics is playing catch-up".
He tracks a short set of metrics in three groups. Acquisition covers where users come from, using LTV and return on ad spend. Retention covers day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30, session length and number of sessions. Monetization covers the share of players who pay, ad revenue, LTV and ARPDAU.
Retention and engagement are read together, and each game also has metrics unique to itself.
He estimates LTV on the back of an envelope. Take the average days a user plays over 30 days and multiply by average revenue per daily active user. Combine that with the user count to judge the game's total value.
It is a rough method that some teams used long ago, and he reminds teams that live operations means constant iteration, not fire and forget.
Ikokwu keeps his analytics stack simple: Adjust, Snowflake, Tableau. Adjust handles acquisition, Snowflake stores raw data and allows SQL access, and Tableau does visualization. His rule is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
He calls monetization the trickiest area to tool, since there is not enough data behind the many tools yet. He names Game of Whales, which runs many A/B tests because nobody knows in advance what will work.
Ikokwu says players who stay are the ones who pay. Early spenders are rare and not the ones to rely on. Long-term players sustain the revenue base, and monetization built on them lasts years instead of fading after launch buzz.
He cites Crossy Road's creator, Matthew Hall, who cared only about retention and trusted he could monetize returning players later. He rejects tricking people into paying.
He still wants monetization planned from the start. Retention matters more, but a game with many users and high retention can earn almost nothing if monetization is an afterthought. He has seen that happen.
At WB, a new character every two weeks pulled lapsed players back. The team announced new champions or challenges roughly every two weeks, such as a new Scorpion challenge. Engagement rose, and monetization rose with it.
He says skipping live operations is the most common retention mistake in mobile, and a saturated market makes it matter more. Only rare titles like Flappy Bird can skip it.
He points to League of Legends for a steady content plan. League of Legends has released new champions for over a decade, and that consistency built a very loyal fan base.
He compares staying relevant to a musician who can be great and still fade after they stop putting out new work. Mobile can copy the habit.
Ikokwu explains why before asking for push permission. Instead of showing the native prompt cold, tell the player crisply what they get, such as a chest unlock or new collector's item cards in Exploding Kittens. He guesses this could raise opt-in by about 50%.
Whatever would make someone return is also the best argument for letting you notify them. He calls missing push notifications the most overlooked retention tactic in mobile games.
His goal is to make non-payers think like payers. About 95% of mobile players still do not pay. He leans on behavioral psychology and the idea that humans are irrational by nature, using value-creation methods that have worked for decades.
He notes that many apps still do not communicate value, even though most now try.
He frames bundles as "20% more coins". If a bundle gives 100 coins for five dollars, add 20 coins and label it 20 percent more. It looks like a good deal without changing the game economy much, and it lifts conversion on that bundle.
He anchors with a very expensive bundle so mid-priced ones sell. A $1,000 bundle shown next to a $100 one makes the $100 bundle look reasonable. People who would never buy the top option buy it instead of the cheapest one.
Anchoring works partly because people like free, so it nudges them off the cheapest option.
He cites a subscription test where a clearer yearly plan tripled conversions. In a test shared by Steve Young, monthly was $25 and yearly was $179, a 50/50 split. Adding a cheaper basics-only yearly plan made the full plan, for about $20 more, look clearly better, and the split moved to 80/20 toward yearly.
Ikokwu recommends starter packs but tests them against a holdout. Give one cohort the pack and another none, whether 10% or 50% of the audience, and compare earnings. He expects the pack to win, but it depends on the game.
"You can always A/B test to prove out your theory."
He says a starter pack only works if players can spend early. If most of the value comes later, buyers wonder why they bought something they cannot use yet. Design the game so players can spend soft currency early.
His phrase: "it has to flow with your title".