My recent ‘strategy guide’ on Booyah’s wildly popular mobile game MyTown is strangely one of my most popular blog posts. Like the 1,000,000 other users who are actively using MyTown, I am addicted and believe that they are among the best example of game mechanics in mobile and local. CrunchBase covered them recently and announced the following stats which demonstrate a mix of engagement and virality:

-1 Million+ Registered Users
-Averaged 100K new registered users a week since launching in December
-40 Million+ Virtual items consumed each week
-25 Million weekly check-ins
-Daily engagement over 65 minutes

The last line is the most staggering… an hour of engagement per day. Wow.

Well, once you hit level 40, the game pretty much ends. You reach “max” points and there is little gameplay incentive to ‘check-in’ and accumulate points. It is strange to think that the game has an end – Farmville, for instance, doesn’t end because the leaderboards and social mechanics don’t allow it to. MyTown isn’t quite there yet. Perhaps I would be motivated if I realized where my town’s value lay in comparison to my friends’… or perhaps I was motivated to reach level 40 (and accumulate points along the way).

Either way, it gives me closure and hopefully more time… though I was NOT spending 65 minutes a day!

Popularity: 2% [?]