Do memberships actually bring players back?

The gap

There are 30 plan holders across the cafés on the platform, and every one of them has played. Set them against the players who have an account but no plan and the difference is large and consistent.

Plan holders: 10.8 sessions, over 5.6 distinct days. No plan: 5.6 sessions, over 3.3 days. Twice the play, and visits on nearly twice as many separate days, which is the number that matters more.

Why this is not proof that plans work

The honest reading is that this is correlation and the direction is probably backwards. Nobody buys a monthly plan on their first visit. A plan holder is, almost by definition, somebody who had already decided your café was their café.

So the plan may be causing the visits, or the visits may be causing the plan, and 30 people is far too small a sample to separate them. Anyone selling you membership software on a number like this is overselling it, including us.

What the number is actually good for

Two things. First, it tells you that your plan holders are worth more per head than your walk-ins, which is a reason to know who they are and to notice when one stops coming.

Second, it sets a floor for what a plan has to be worth. If a plan holder plays 10.8 sessions where a non-holder plays 5.6, a plan priced as though it will be used twice is priced wrong.

Questions people ask

Do gaming café memberships increase repeat visits?

Plan holders on this platform play about twice as often as named players without a plan, across 1.7 times as many days. The direction of cause is unproven: regulars are the people most likely to buy a plan in the first place.

How should I price a gaming café membership?

Price it against how much a plan holder actually plays, not how much an average customer plays. On this data that is roughly double, so a plan costed on average usage will be underpriced.