Game Analytics

Telemetry from inside the game (DAU, retention, funnels, level-completion, monetization). Pairs with distribution / stores, analytics for general web analytics, and observability for ops. For full landscape see Game Development.

Game analytics differs from web analytics: cohort retention by install day, funnel through tutorial → first session end, monetization ARPDAU, churn after key beats, A/B testing of difficulty curves.

Free / generous-free-tier

• ★ GameAnalytics — free, designed for games specifically. DAU/MAU, retention, funnels, monetization, custom events. The indie default for "give me game KPIs."
• ★ Aptabase — free OSS + paid cloud, privacy-friendly, good for desktop / mobile games. Unity / Unreal SDKs.
• Firebase Analytics (Google) — free, generic but with Unity / Unreal SDKs and free unlimited events.
• Microsoft PlayFab Analytics — free tier within PlayFab.

Paid / enterprise

• Unity Analytics — paid (within Unity Pro / Pro Plus).
• DeltaDNA — paid, AAA-focused.
• Mixpanel, Amplitude — paid, web-flavored but used by some games.
• Singular, Adjust, Appsflyer — paid mobile attribution / analytics.
• GameDiscoverCo Plus — paid newsletter with Steam analytics deep dives (not telemetry, but the indie-marketing analytics).

Privacy-friendly / OSS

• Aptabase — see above.
• PostHog — free OSS + paid, generic but used by some games.
• Plausible — free OSS, web-flavored.
• Self-host telemetry — many indies write events to S3 + DuckDB + a dashboard.

Crash / error reporting

• Sentry — free + paid, Unity / Unreal SDKs.
• Bugsnag — paid + free.
• Crashlytics (Firebase) — free.
• Backtrace — paid, AAA-leaning.
• Embrace — paid, mobile-game-leaning.

Steam-specific

• Steamworks Stats and Achievements API — free, raw events.
• GameDiscoverCo Plus — paid Steam analytics newsletter.
• VG Insights, GameDataCrunch — paid Steam wishlist / sales analytics.
• SteamDB — free, public Steam metadata.

Mobile attribution

See mobile-native. Game-relevant:

• Adjust, Appsflyer, Branch, Singular — paid SaaS.
• Apple SKAdNetwork — Apple's privacy-preserving attribution.

A/B testing / live ops

• Firebase Remote Config — free.
• Unity Remote Config — free under cap.
• PlayFab A/B testing — paid tier.
• GrowthBook, PostHog feature flags — see feature flags.
• Statsig — free + paid.

Privacy / compliance

• GDPR / CCPA / COPPA all apply. SDKs like GameAnalytics, Aptabase, PlayFab document opt-in flows.
• iOS ATT (App Tracking Transparency) — required since iOS 14.5, eats into IDFA-based attribution.

Pick this if…

• Indie default, free, game-shaped: GameAnalytics.
• OSS / privacy-friendly: Aptabase.
• Already on Firebase: Firebase Analytics + Crashlytics.
• Already on PlayFab: PlayFab Analytics.
• Crash reporting: Sentry across the board.
• Steam launch decisions: GameDiscoverCo + VG Insights.
• Mobile UA: Appsflyer or Adjust.