In most top grossing games, the whales represent the smallest percentage of users but are responsible for up to 50% or more in revenue sales of an app. These special users sure make a whale of a difference in an app’s success and profit.

Whales are “rare” users that every game company is after; whales are the users that are able to spend hundreds, thousands, and even millions of USD in a game. They make a huge difference between a game company that is struggling to survive and a mega profitable company.

In fact, the top grossing companies are willing to spend more than $500 CPI for these kinds of super whales. Although it might sound like a lot, it's actually a very cost effective investment when your poached whale ends up spending $10K in the game.

Here is how we rank game players at Game of Whales based on Game of Whale’s industry standard spending:

In order to better understand your whales and the best game whaling practices you can use to acquire them, you’ll need to distinguish between different types of whales. This is the first article in a series of articles that will analyze different types of game players with practical advice on how to capture, train and retain the money making mammals. The first type of game player is the fast and furious whale.

How to Whale the Fast and Furious

Fast and furious whales can easily end the first session spending over $500 USD.

When it comes to whaling the fast and furious whales, the key is to identify them as early as possible, keep them engaged with unique offers and content,  and make sure when they are ready to churn for the game, that they are presented with another enticing game of yours.

Here are some steps to catch your fast and furious gaming whale effectively. 

Identify  - Keep the anonymous information of your whales across the game catalogued so that when you recognize a whale, you can act immediately to capture and retain them.

Act  - Fast and Furious Whales will not react to special offers and boosts that will slowly enhance them in a game - they will ignore these attempts, or worse, get bored and leave. If you are playing your cards right with your whale, you should offer a significant boost forward early on in the game so they can go all in. Once they are in, the next offer should come immediately, even in the same session.

Maintain - Fast and furious whales need special attention. When they don't show up as expected, they need to be encouraged to come back to play. 

Here is an example of a Fast and Furious whale card in the Game of Whales dashboard:

What we see from the behavior of this fast and furious whale is that from his first session, he was already making escalating IAPs . After 4 days, the Game of Whales platform identified an opportunity to lead this player through a funnel that would maximize profits for the game. With the opportunity identified, the platform started sending the most relevant incentives to the user. These incentives led to 6 purchases totaling $370 in only one day. 

As was expected, the fast and furious whale was looking for a shortcut to have the best possible game experience in the shortest amount of time. He spent $70 in his first session and triggered the Game of Whales platform as a potential fast and furious whale. The Game of Whales platform identified the best funnel to put the player though and proceeded to send him the perfect incentive at the perfect time. This led to a direct IAP of $22 that was then followed by the player’s first $100 price point IAP, which was then followed by an additional $250 worth of IAP.
  
Once you identify a whale and poach it correctly, you have got your hands on a serious asset. You want these kinds of users on every game you have on offer - make sure your whale knows about other games or newly launched games that have come out.

Whale of an Opportunity You Should Take Advantage of

Don't wait, be proactive in securing and maintaining your whale’s attention so that you do not lose him to a competitor. Remember that these special users are bombarded with ads to other games and you don’t want someone else to snatch away your money-maker.

Game of whales does the entire process of identifying, interacting, and optimizing on potential whales for you. Without using any personal information, the Game of Whales AI algorithm technology uses behavioral predictions to identify and advance your whales to the right funnel for you, automatically. Without even thinking, you will have the biggest whales raking in money for you in no time. 

In our next article, we will discuss another type of valuable player called the Slow Whale that requires its own kind of poaching techniques. Subscribe to our blog to keep out for our articles and learn how to master all kinds of whales in your gaming strategy.

Want to catch your own fast and furious whales? Create your free account at Game of Whales to boost your whales IAP today!