Lighthouse Studio Surveys User Behavior on Mobile Game Churn, Retention, and Return: Over Half of Users 'Early Churn' Within One Hour

Lighthouse Studio, a CARTA HOLDINGS group company that operates the game media site 'Kamigame,' conducted a survey on 300 mobile game users across Japan regarding churn, retention, and return behaviors.

The results show that 52.0% of respondents have experienced quitting a game within one hour, combining 'often' and 'sometimes' responses. The most common reason cited was 'the tutorial is too long' (25.3%), with 39.3% of users feeling that a tutorial lasting about 10 minutes is already too long. For long-term churn, 'boredom' was the primary reason at 38.3%, and opinions on returning to games were divided.

■ Survey Overview

Survey Period: January 28, 2026 – February 9, 2026
Target: Mobile game users nationwide
Method: Online survey
Respondents: 300

■ Key Findings

・52.0% of users have quit a new mobile game within one hour.
・Early churn within one hour is most common in 'Puzzle games' (22.3%) and 'RPGs' (19.7%).
・The top reason for quitting within one hour is 'long tutorials' (25.3%).
・39.3% of users feel that a tutorial lasting about 10 minutes is too long.
・31.7% of users feel that daily missions taking about 20 minutes are a burden.
・44.0% of users have quit a mobile game they played for over a year.
・The primary factor for long-term churn is 'boredom' (38.3%).
・39.3% of users say they 'never return' to a game they have quit.
・Regarding returning to a game, 41.3% stated they 'do not require special features' to come back.

■ Survey Results

About 50% have experienced 'churn within one hour'

When asked about the experience of uninstalling or stopping a new game within one hour of installation, 52.0% of respondents answered 'often' (14.3%) or 'sometimes' (37.7%).

Conversely, only 22.7% said they 'never' do this, indicating that users are deciding whether to continue playing during the initial experience phase.

Early churn is concentrated in 'Puzzle games' and 'RPGs'