Player Retention in Animal Crossing

Presenter(s)

Michelle Hsieh

Abstract or Description

This study aims to examine the effect that non-playable characters (NPCs) have on player retention in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This game has become one of the most popular games released during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is still able to regularly engage its player base a year after its release. A quantitative study was executed to better understand how Animal Crossing: New Horizons sustained success was achieved. More specifically, data was collected via a Qualtrics survey focusing on the prominent factors of gameplay, namely the NPCs in the game known as villagers. This data was fit into a regression model, and it was concluded that while the villagers do play an important role in the retention of players, it is not the most significant gameplay factor; other factors such as frequent content updates and adding new items to collect also influenced retention. While these results are more focused on the NPC aspect of Animal Crossing:New Horizons, the insights gained from this work helped to better understand what makes this game popular, thereby providing lessons for future single player games looking to retain players over the long term.

Mentor

Jessica Hammer and Noor Hammad