TOPICS

Editor Essentials Scripting Graphics & Visual Effects 2D Mobile & Touch XR Physics User Interface For Educators AI & Navigation

Content Type

Pathways

Build skills in Unity with guided learning pathways designed to help anyone interested in pursuing a career in gaming and the Real Time 3D Industry.

View all Pathways

Courses

Explore a topic in-depth through a combination of step-by-step tutorials and projects.

View all Courses

Projects

Create a Unity application, with opportunities to mod and experiment.

View all Projects

Tutorials

Find what you’re looking for with short, bite-sized tutorials.

TOPICS

View Tutorial Content

Steps

Unity Analytics Basics

Tutorial

Beginner

30 Mins

(81)

Overview

Summary

Unity Analytics allows you to track specific custom events, so you can see how users are interacting with your game. This tutorial explains how to implement custom events, funnels, and custom segments to your game.

Select your Unity version

Last updated: December 13, 2021

5.x

Language

English

1.Intro to Custom Events

Unity Analytics allows you to track specific custom events, so you can see how users are interacting with your game. You can use this to identify usage patterns by analyzing a player segment that triggers a specific event. Or in conjunction with funnels to better understand where your players are dropping off.
A custom event is any event that you want to track that isn’t already handled by the Unity Analytics SDK. Unity Analytics captures default metrics such as: device platform, new users, sessions, etc.
- Custom events can be any specific in-game action your player takes.
- Parameters describe attributes or details of an Event or the player performing it.
Here are some examples of custom events and their associated parameters
Select image to expand
Type caption for image (optional)

Custom Event Reporting
Data (including parameters) are aggregated at the segment level in Data Explorer. Currently there’s not a way to analyze individual user level data via the dashboard. To view your data:
In Data Explorer → Add Custom Event This allows you to select a Custom Event and segment whose data you wish to analyze.
In Data Explorer → Add Custom Event → Click View Parameters This drills down to a specific custom event, allowing you to examine each event parameter.
For numerical parameters: Count, sums and averages
For non-numeric parameters (strings and booleans): Count and categorical breakdown
Select image to expand
Type caption for image (optional)

FAQs
Where are good places to put custom events?
A few suggestions are when a user passes an important milestone, levels up, or makes an in-app purchase made.
How do I review the events that I’ve set up?
There are a couple of methods to view this:
You can review your events in the event validator (up to the last 50 events). We do have a limit of 10,000 events per project that can be logged in the validator. If for any reason you stop seeing events captured, you've probably hit your cap. Please contact us to reset this.
Within Data Explorer, there is an option to "Add Custom Event.” You can view your events in the dropdown menu.
Why are my events not showing up in Data Explorer?
If your events show up in the validator, you may need to wait 4-6 hours for the data to process (the validator is instantaneous). Check back to see if your dashboard populates with data.
What data can I export using CSV option?
The CSV export option gives (at the segment level) the count, average, and sum of your numeric parameters, and the count for string and boolean parameters.

2.Introduction to Funnels

What are Funnels?
Suppose your game has a tutorial, and you’re wondering whether players get all the way through it. How would you test this? This is what funnels are for. A funnel is a visual interpretation of how players move through a series of events (steps). Funnels help you identify where drop offs happen in your game (ie: how many people you lose between steps). If you see a large drop-off in your funnel, it might indicate a problem. Perhaps there's a bug that crashes the game, or the level is too hard and people give up. Funnels help to assess pain points in your game so you can implement fixes and encourage your players to experience the game the way you want them to. Ultimately, you want your players to complete the funnel. This is known as increasing your overall funnel conversion rate.
Funnels are based on custom events. Custom events allow you to define a set of actions that a player takes to reach a goal. Custom events can be any specific in-game action your player takes. For example, “Social media button clicked”, “Level completed”, and “In App purchase made.” Parameters describe attributes or details of an Event or the player performing it. Continuing with the above examples for events the related parameters are: “Twitter/Facebook”, “Level 1, 2, 3…”, and “HP Potion/MP Elixir”.
Select image to expand
Type caption for image (optional)

FAQs
1. How does a Funnel work?
Funnels are linear - this means that a player must complete the funnel steps in the exact order that you have set-up your funnel.
As a simple example, let's say you have a game with distinct numeric levels (i.e, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3) that are linear (i.e., you must complete Level 2 before completing Level 3 and so on).
If you create a funnel with the following funnel steps:
Step 1 = Level 1
Step 2 = Level 3
Step 3 = Level 2
Step 4 = Level 4
The above funnel will show players in Step 1 and Step 2, however there will be no players in Step 3 and Step 4. What happened? This is because no players have completed the event Level 3, prior to completing the event Level 2. We’ve got Level 2 and Level 3 in the wrong order. A player must be a member of the preceding funnel step in order to fall into the next step of the funnel.
2. When will my Funnel be live?
Your funnel should be live 4-6 hours after creating it, as we receive the custom events generated by your game. Make sure you complete custom event integration first!
3. Why is my Funnel empty?
Typically, the main reason is that a player has yet to meet the criteria necessary in order to enter the funnel.
However, to confirm your funnel is set up correctly you can:
Check that events are sent correctly.
Enter the funnel yourself and check that the appropriate events are logged in the validator.
Check that enough time has elapsed. Funnels are live after 4-6 hours - subject to Unity Analytics receiving the custom event data.
If you still require assistance please complete a support ticket so we may examine your funnel closely or help you create a funnel.
4. How many times can a player complete a funnel? All conversions are based on unique users, not total events sent (each user can convert only once for each step).
5. How long does a player have to complete a funnel?
There is no time limit.
6. What happens if a parameter changes across a funnel?
If the value of a parameter changes over the course of a funnel, Unity Analytics records the most recent value of the parameter and attributes the conversion to that value.
7. What are some examples of funnels I can create? How many players complete the levels in my game. Where are they getting stuck? How effective is my promotion leading to an in-app purchase in my store?

3.Introduction to Custom Segments

Suppose your game recently launched but you wanted to better understand if you should localize your game to your Asian markets. How could you test this? You could build Asian country segments and determine how big your player population from those countries are. Furthermore, you could look at the different Asian countries and determine if any country had a large group of Whales! By using custom segments, you'd then want to localize your game for the Asian country with the highest percentage of Whales.
Segments are groups of players (users) who embody a particular trait or have completed a specific action within a specific period of time. You can segment by geography, monetization, age, etc to create for example, Japanese Whales, New Android Users which spend more than $5. Segments allow you to analyze how different groups of users vary in their usage and behavior. Ultimately this can help you provide highly targeted and relevant content to users. Continuing with the example segment above, you may want to send a special promotion to purchase weapons at a discounted rate so they increase their attack power.
The key to segmentation is to identify the user behavior that is valuable or that you want to change. By understanding this, you can determine which segments are in most need of attention. Studying segments leads to more insights on the different groups of players. By understanding the differences among your players you can better understand why some folks are delighted by your game, while others are frustrated.
Which Kind of Segments Can I Create?
In addition to utilizing any of the standard Unity Analytics segments, using the Segment Builder you can create segments combining any of the following user or behavioral attributes. Mix and match to build segments that fit your exact needs. Our standard segments, include:
Behavioral: Engagement, session length, session frequency
Lifecycle: Number of days since first session
Demographic: Age, gender, geography, platform
Select image to expand
Type caption for image (optional)

FAQs
1. When will my custom segment be available?
It will take up to 4 hours for data to populate.
2. Are segments mutually exclusive?
The standard segments (monetization, life-cycle, geography, demographic, and iOS/Android platform) are mutually exclusive (so a player can’t be a Whale and Dolphin). However, using segment builder you can create segments that are not mutually exclusive.
3. What are examples of custom segments I can create?
Platform segments: Windows Phone 8.1, Windows, Windows 8.1, Mac, and Linux. iOS and Android are included in our standard segments (ie: Linux Turkish Males, 18-21, who played at least 3 sessions today)
Attribution source: create custom segments for traffic from social media networks, ad campaigns and other channels of traffic to see which drive the best traffic. You would need to setup custom events. The event could be "install" and that "source" would be the parameter.
Non-Monetized users: target non-paying users to offer special promotions

4.Glossary of Metrics

The analytics industry is full of metrics and acronyms. To help clarify what some of these terms mean, we’ve started a glossary of a few basics to help get you started:
ARPDAU: Average Revenue Per Daily Active User Game developers who are focused on DAU tend to track ARPDAU as a means to estimate the amount of revenue generated by users on any given day. While a potentially interesting metric to track, other monetization metrics (e.g. ARPPU, ARPU) can share more informative trends about your game.
ARPDAU = [Total Revenue for a Given Day] / [Number of Active Users that Day] Relevant Articles: Gamesbrief (http://www.gamesbrief.com/2012/09/arpdau/)
ARPPU: Average Revenue per Paying User ARPPU is used to estimate the average amount spent by those users who spend money in your game. How much money does the average customer spend (in many games, most players never spend any money, but ARPPU only includes those who do) While this metric can help you understand the health of your in-app economy, this metric may be less useful in determining the overall monetization health of your game.
ARPPU = [Total Revenue] / [Number of Paying Users]
ARPU: Average Revenue Per User Probably the most common monetization metric, ARPU is your average earnings per user. The benchmark for ARPU varies widely depending on the type and genre of your game, although recent reports have indicated ranges of $0.18 - $11.89 for major mobile titles.
ARPU = [Total Revenue] / [Total Number of Users] Relevant Articles: Superdata Research (http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/)
Average Number of Sessions Per Daily Active User: Higher average sessions indicate multiple visits by each player in a single day.
Average Number of Session Per Daily Active User = Total Sessions / Daily Active Users
CPU: Cost Per User, the cost associated with acquiring new users. The marketing campaigns that your studio allocates to acquire additional customers. Relevant Articles: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_acquisition_cost)
Churn Rate: The rate at which users are leaving your game during a specified period. Your user churn rate is important in estimating the lifetime value of your users. Relevant Articles: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churn_rate)
CPA: Cost Per Action (or Acquisition, Conversion); this is the cost for the user to perform an action (e.g. download an app, purchase an item). Generally, your user acquisition goal is to maximize the difference between your user’s LTV and CPA. CPA is a measurement for ad effectiveness, and accounts for performance directly related to the ROI of the ad campaign.
CPC: Cost Per Click (or Pay Per Click); this is your average cost for each user who clicks a viewed impression or ad. This is the “amount spent to get an advertisement clicked.” Relevant Articles: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click)
CPI: Cost Per Impression: This is your incurred cost per impression shown. CPI is often used to assess the cost effectiveness and profitability of your campaign.
CPI = [Total Campaign Advertising Cost / Total Impressions]
CPM: Cost Per 1000 Impressions The cost per thousand impressions; similar to CPI, this metric in the context of online and mobile advertising, is used to assess the cost effectiveness and profitability of your marketing campaign. It is expressed as Cost per Thousand Impressions to make the numbers easier to manage.
CPM = [Total Campaign Advertising Cost / Total Impressions * 1000]
Conversion: In the context of online and mobile advertising, a conversion occurs whenever the desired action is completed for the ad campaign. For user acquisition campaigns, a conversion is usually the acquisition of a new user. Conversions can also be other actions (e.g. completed purchase, click-through, etc.).
CTR: Click Through Rate; in the context of online and mobile advertising, the total number of clicks divided by the number of impressions times 100. The percentage of clicks to impressions. The percentage of people who click on a given ad. It is calculated by the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions, and then multiplied by 100 to form a percentage. CTR can vary per ad unit – an attention grabbing ad unit will have a higher CTR than an ad unit that users tend to ignore. The higher the CTR, the more effective the ad unit is.
CTR = [Total Clicks / Total Impressions * 100]
DAU: Daily Active User - the number of users who played at least one session on a given day; the count of unique users who visited your application during a defined day. DAU is used as metric to evaluate the “stickiness” of your game.
Dolphin: A term used to describe a set of users who spend a “middling” amount in your application. Relative to Whales and Minnows, Dolphins are mid-tier spenders, although the precise amount these users spend on average will vary by your app and definition (spending $10 may categorize someone as a whale in a casual game, but as a minnow in a hardcore game).
F2P: Free to Play (Also known as the Freemium Business Model); this refers to the business model that offers users free access to a fully functional game and a significant portion of app content. Monetization strategies for these titles generally include microtransactions that allow users to access premium features and virtual goods.
Funnel: a defined flow for your application that allows you to monitor the progression of your user’s activity. A funnel usually captures a series of actions a user takes to accomplish a goal. Funnel analysis is a key component of understanding conversions and dropoffs in your game, as well as identifying bottlenecks that can detrimentally affect your players’ experiences.
K-Factor: A metric used to describe the growth rate and virality of your game. A rough formula is as follows: k = [invites sent by each customer * conversion percentage of invites] a k-factor of 1 indicates a “steady” state of neither growth nor decline, while a k-factor greater than 1 indicates exponential growth.
Relevant Articles: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-factor_(marketing)))
Impression: In the context of online and mobile advertising, this is the unit of measurement for the number of times an ad is seen. Each time an ad displays, it is counted as one impression, whether the ad is clicked on or not. Relevant Article: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression_(online_media))
LTV: User Lifetime Value, generally a prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with the user. Calculations of LTV will vary by prediction model, but should generally express the net present value of the projected future cash flows from the customer relationship. Relevant Article: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifetime_value)
Minnow: Relative to Whales and Dolphins, Minnows are your lowest tiered spenders. The precise amount these users spend will vary per app, but they are distinct from non-spenders, who have spent nothing at all.
MAU: Monthly Active User - the number of unique users who played at least one session in a given month. One of the metrics used to measure the growth of your game.
New User: Total number of unique users on a specific day as counted for the first time.
PLTV: Predicted Life Time Value (Long Term Value). See LTV.
Retention: the percentage of users who return over a specified period of time. Retention metrics measure the activity of users over time; industry standard retention rates are calculated based on 1-day, 7-day, and 30-day retention rates. Retention can tell you a lot about your game (ex: Are people enjoying it? Are there problems with certain devices? Are there problems with the design of the game?).
Daily Retention For New Users (as a Percentage): Retention rate is defined as what percentage of new players who played your game on Day 1 are still playing on Day 7 and Day 30.
Segment: A subset of users who have common needs and/or priorities. By categorizing users into different segments, you can target each segment with different promotions (for example, for the non-monetizing user segment, you can show them an ad unit, but for the high monetizing user segment, you can give them a special promotion on an item in the game). Market segmentation is a strategy aimed at strategically identifying and targeting users of similar backgrounds with relevant promotions. Relevant Article: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segment)
Sticky Factor: This is a measure of engagement. Of the users who have played the game in a calendar month, how many of those like it enough to return on a daily basis? If you have 100 MAU and 30 DAU, your sticky factor is 30%, meaning you have a 30% chance of getting someone who had downloaded your game to visit on a daily basis. The more entertaining your game is, the higher your sticky factor will be.
Sticky Factor = DAU/MAU
Total Daily Play Time: The total time in seconds that your players invest in your game.
Total Sessions: The total number of sessions played on a given day.
Verified Revenue: Total revenue from in-app purchases that have been verified with a receipt from Apple iTunes or Google Play.
Number of Verified Transactions: The total number of transactions that are verified with a receipt from the app store on a given day.
Whale: A term used to describe a set of users who spend the largest amount in your application. Relative to Dolphins and Minnows, Whales are your highest spenders. The precise amount these users actually spend will vary per app. Although there is no universal standard, some studios define Whales as their top 5% spenders. Relevant Article: Gamesbrief (http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/whales-dolphins-and-minnows-the-beating-heart-of-a-free-to-play-game/)

Unity Analytics Basics

General Tutorial Discussion

1. Intro to Custom Events

2. Introduction to Funnels

3. Introduction to Custom Segments

4. Glossary of Metrics