Data shows Miitomo is in decline, suggests downloads alone aren't enough

SurveyMonkey's data tracking arm, SurveyMonkey Intelligence, has taken an in-depth look at the performance of Miitomo one month after the game launched, and it’s not exactly good news. 

Despite a strong start, which saw the app shoot to the top of the download charts in multiple countries on both iOS and Android, interest has soon petered off, and the game has struggled to keep users interested. 

Data gathered by SurveyMonkey Intelligence shows one of Miitomo’s biggest problems has been a lack of meaningful player engagement. 

"The game, which straddles the line between a game and a social hub, starts off with the fun task of creating your own Mii character and gets users to spend some coins decking them out in gear," writes SurveyMonkey Intelligence’s head of product, Arjun Lall. 

"As fans have noted, after that the game slows as the core loop involves answering open ended questions and earning coins to buy different clothes and costumes."

Compared with other chart-toppers, such as Clash Royale and Candy Crush Saga, Miitomo’s engagement levels (shown below), as measured by average days used per week, simply don’t stack up. 

Clash Royale players, for example, spend an average of 4.2 days per week on Supercell’s strategic tower defense title. Miitomo users, however, spend just 2.3 days on average on Nintendo’s debut effort. 

By contrast, Miitomo’s weekly churn  -- that is, the number of players leaving the app each week -- for both iOS and Android is more than double that of both Clash Royale and Candy Crush. 

"The game’s weekly churn more than 50 percent means that over half of the users of Miitomo on a given week won’t come back and play it again the following week," continues Lall. 

"For some apps that don’t need frequent use this isn't a problem, but for games like Miitomo, which are designed for frequent use, churn at this level foreshadows a quick decline."

For a deeper breakdown of Miitomo’s first month, head on over to the SurveyMonkey Intelligence blog.