This episode, Two and a Half Gamers sit down with analytics legend Russell Ovans—the mind behind Professor ARPDAU and the author of game analytics’ “bible.” Learn the brutal truth about retention, ARPDAU, LTV, and the “golden cohort” trap. If you want to scale your game profitably in 2025, you need these formulas, tools, and lessons - no hype, no BS, just results.

You’ll learn:

Why retention is the only metric that matters (until ARPDAU takes over)

How to model and predict your LTV, player days, and payback window using real retention curves

The difference between analytics and data science, and why cohorts are your best friend

How to avoid burning your UA budget chasing “golden cohorts” or missing your D7 ROAS target

Free tools at arpdow.com to plug in your data and get real answers

Key Takeaway:

Retention plus ARPDAU equals real growth. Track cohorts, model your curve, and never fall for the golden cohort trap or ad network happy talk. If you want more, arpdow.com has the tools.

Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop

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PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.

Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/

They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.

- Scale fast

- Keep your shares

- Drawdown only as needed

- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you

+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors

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Vibe. Vibe is the leading Streaming TV ad platform for small and medium-sized businesses looking for actionable advertising campaign performance.

https://www.vibe.co/

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For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.

Our sponsor FastSpring:

Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years

They power top mobile publishers around the world

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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.

Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠

Special Guest: Russel Ovans

https://arpdau.com/

https://arpdau.com/ltv

Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Analytics in Gaming

05:38 Russell Owens' Journey in Game Analytics

08:29 Understanding Analytics vs. Data Science

11:37 The Importance of Cohorts in Game Analytics

14:43 Retention Metrics and Their Significance

18:44 Key Performance Indicators for Game Success

21:39 The Relationship Between LTV and CPI

24:37 Predicting Retention and Its Impact on Game Design

30:41 Understanding Retention Metrics

33:42 The Importance of Retention in Monetization

36:31 Expected Player Days and LTV Calculation

43:43 Tools for Predicting LTV and ROAS

50:41 Final Thoughts and Homework for Game Developers

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Matej Lancaric

User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant

⁠https://lancaric.me

Felix Braberg

Ad monetization consultant

⁠https://www.felixbraberg.com

Jakub Remiar

Game design consultant

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar

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Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!

Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!

Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

Game Analytics 101: Why waiting "One more week" can kill your game!

two &amp; a half gamers

two & a half gamers