Games Industry Glossary
The games industry has developed its own language - shaped by free-to-play economics, live operations, platform constraints, and data-driven decision making. For those entering the sector, moving between studios, or working with games businesses from adjacent industries, this terminology can be opaque and inconsistently used.
This glossary provides clear, concise definitions of the key terms, metrics, and concepts used across modern games companies. Each entry is written to be practical rather than academic, reflecting how these ideas are used day-to-day by operators, product leaders, commercial teams, and investors.
The glossary is curated by Neon River, an executive search firm specialising in senior leadership roles across games and technology companies. It is designed as a reference resource - updated over time - for anyone seeking a sharper understanding of how the industry actually works.
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Last updated
January 2026
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Live Game Operations (Live Ops)
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Live Games / Games as a Service (GaaS) | A model in which a game is operated as an ongoing service rather than a one-off product. Live games evolve continuously after launch through updates, events, and new content, with revenue driven by long-term engagement rather than upfront sales alone. |
| Live Ops | The ongoing operational management of a live game after launch. Live ops covers content updates, in-game events, economy tuning, promotions, and technical maintenance, with the goal of sustaining engagement, retention, and revenue over time. |
| Content Cadence | The planned rhythm at which new content, features, or events are released into a live game. Cadence is a critical lever in live ops, balancing player engagement, development capacity, and the risk of content fatigue or churn. |
| Event-Driven Design | A design approach in which temporary in-game events form a core part of the player experience. Events are often used to re-engage lapsed players, test new mechanics, and create urgency through time-limited rewards. |
| Battle Pass | A seasonal progression system that rewards players for completing challenges over a fixed period. Battle passes combine retention and monetisation by encouraging regular play while offering premium reward tracks for paying users. |
| Player Lifecycle | The stages a player moves through during their time with a game, typically from onboarding to engagement, monetisation, and eventual churn. Live ops strategies are often tailored to different lifecycle stages to maximise long-term value. |
| Churn | The loss of players over time, usually measured as the percentage of users who stop playing within a given period. Managing churn is a central concern in live games, closely tied to content cadence, game balance, and player satisfaction. |
| Economy Balancing | The ongoing adjustment of in-game currencies, rewards, and progression systems to maintain fairness, engagement, and monetisation. In live games, economy balancing is a continuous process rather than a one-time design decision. |
User Acquisition & Growth
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| User Acquisition (UA) | The marketing and distribution activities used to bring new players into a game. In mobile free-to-play, UA is typically performance-driven and optimised against CPI, retention, and LTV, with spend scaled based on profitability. |
| CPI (Cost Per Install) | The average cost to acquire one new install of a game through paid marketing. CPI varies by country, platform, audience, and creative quality, and is meaningful only alongside post-install retention and monetisation. |
| CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) | The total cost to acquire a paying customer rather than just an install. In games, CAC is most often used when analysing payer funnels, subscriptions, or premium products. |
| LTV (Lifetime Value) | The expected revenue generated by a player over their lifetime in a game. LTV is used to determine sustainable UA spend and is often modelled predictively for scaling decisions. |
| ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) | The revenue returned for each unit of advertising spend, typically measured over fixed windows such as D7 or D30. ROAS can obscure long-term value if retention is highly back-loaded. |
| Payback Period | The time required for an acquired cohort to generate enough revenue to repay its acquisition cost. Shorter payback enables faster, lower-risk scaling. |
| Cohort Analysis | A method of analysing player behaviour by grouping users who share a common start point, such as install date or campaign. Cohorts allow teams to compare retention and monetisation over time. |
| Attribution | The process of assigning credit for an install or conversion to a marketing touchpoint. Attribution underpins performance UA but is constrained by privacy rules, cross-device behaviour, and platform policies. |
| SKAdNetwork (SKAN) | Apple’s privacy-focused attribution framework for iOS. SKAN limits user-level tracking and returns delayed, aggregated performance signals, requiring mobile game teams to rely more on modelling, experiments, and creative iteration. |
| Creative Fatigue | A decline in performance when an ad creative is repeatedly shown to the same audience, leading to higher CPI and lower conversion rates. Managing fatigue requires continuous creative testing and a steady pipeline of new ad variations. |
Monetisation & Economy
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) | The average revenue generated per user over a defined period, often daily or monthly. In games, ARPU is used to compare monetisation performance across cohorts, geographies, and acquisition sources, and is typically interpreted alongside retention and LTV. |
| ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) | The average revenue generated per daily active user on a given day. ARPDAU is a common live game metric because it captures short-term monetisation intensity and can be tracked quickly after changes to pricing, offers, or events. |
| In-App Purchases (IAP) | Purchases made within a game, typically for virtual currency, items, boosts, or cosmetic content. IAP is a primary monetisation method in free-to-play, where design and economy balance shape payer conversion, spend depth, and long-term retention. |
| Payer Conversion | The percentage of players who make at least one purchase within a given time period. Payer conversion is influenced by onboarding, offer design, price points, and perceived value, and is often analysed separately for new users versus established players. |
| Whales / Dolphins / Minnows | Informal segments used to describe spend tiers in free-to-play games. “Whales” are the highest spenders, “dolphins” are mid-tier spenders, and “minnows” spend occasionally. These segments help teams tailor offers, pricing, and content without relying solely on averages. |
| Soft Currency vs Hard Currency | Soft currency is typically earned through play and used for everyday progression, while hard currency is scarcer and often purchased with real money. The relationship between the two is a core design lever for pacing, value perception, and monetisation. |
| Sinks and Faucets | “Faucets” are sources that add currency or resources into an economy, while “sinks” remove them through spending or upgrades. Balancing sinks and faucets is essential to prevent inflation, maintain progression tension, and preserve the perceived value of rewards. |
| Offer Design | The structure and presentation of purchasable bundles, deals, and promotions in a game. Good offer design aligns pricing, timing, and contents with player intent and progression, increasing conversion while avoiding a perception of unfairness or pay-to-win. |
| Price Elasticity | A measure of how sensitive player spending is to changes in price. In games, elasticity varies by segment, geography, and product type, and is often tested through experiments on price points, bundles, and paywalls to maximise long-term revenue rather than short-term conversion. |
Retention & Engagement
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Retention | The percentage of players who return to a game after a given period of time. Retention is a foundational metric for live games because it determines the size of the engaged audience available for monetisation, social dynamics, and long-term growth. |
| D1 / D7 / D30 Retention | Standard retention checkpoints that measure whether players return one day, seven days, or thirty days after install. These milestones help teams diagnose onboarding issues, early drop-off, and the long-term “stickiness” of a game across cohorts and channels. |
| DAU / MAU | Daily Active Users and Monthly Active Users. DAU captures the number of unique players active on a day, while MAU captures unique players active in a month. Together they are used to understand scale, engagement patterns, and the health of a live game. |
| DAU/MAU Ratio (Stickiness) | A measure of how frequently monthly users return on a daily basis. A higher DAU/MAU ratio suggests stronger habitual engagement, while a lower ratio can indicate “spiky” usage driven by events, content drops, or occasional play. |
| Session Length | The amount of time a player spends in the game during a single session. Session length can signal engagement depth, but is genre-dependent and can be affected by friction, loading times, and live ops incentives as much as intrinsic fun. |
| Session Frequency | How often players open the game within a given time period, such as sessions per day. Frequency is a key input to retention and monetisation in many mobile games, especially those built around daily habits, timed resources, and repeatable loops. |
| Core Loop | The repeating cycle of actions that forms the backbone of a game’s engagement, such as play a level, earn rewards, upgrade, and repeat. A strong core loop creates momentum and habit, while a weak loop increases churn regardless of content cadence. |
| Onboarding | The early player experience that teaches the game, reduces friction, and helps new users reach the “aha” moment. Onboarding has outsized impact on D1 and D7 retention, and is often optimised through experimentation and segmentation. |
| Re-engagement | Efforts to bring back lapsed players through messaging, incentives, or new content, commonly via push notifications, email, or in-game offers. Re-engagement is most effective when timed to player intent and paired with meaningful improvements to the underlying experience. |
Platforms & Distribution
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Platform Holder | A company that controls a major distribution platform and its rules, economics, and technical standards. In games this typically refers to Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Valve, and increasingly large ecosystem owners with stores, payment rails, and discovery surfaces. |
| App Store Optimisation (ASO) | The practice of improving a game’s visibility and conversion within app store search and browse experiences. ASO includes keyword strategy, screenshots, video, ratings management, and localisation, and is a core driver of organic installs alongside paid UA. |
| Organic Installs | Installs that occur without direct paid advertising, typically driven by store discovery, search, featuring, social sharing, or word of mouth. Organic growth is often measured separately because it improves unit economics and can compound when a game achieves strong ranking momentum. |
| Featuring | Promotion of a game by a platform holder within curated surfaces such as “Editors’ Choice”, store banners, or special collections. Featuring can drive large spikes in installs, but is unpredictable and often tied to seasonality, product quality, localisation, and platform relationships. |
| Store Algorithm | The ranking and recommendation logic that determines how games are surfaced in store search results and browse placements. Algorithms typically respond to signals such as conversion rate, retention proxies, ratings, velocity of installs, and regional performance. |
| Revenue Share | The percentage split of revenue between a game developer/publisher and the platform. On major app stores and console storefronts, revenue share shapes unit economics and pricing strategy, especially for subscriptions and high-volume in-app purchases. |
| IAP Platform Fee | The fee charged by a platform holder for processing in-app purchases through its payment system. Platform fees influence pricing, margins, and promotional strategies, and have become a major strategic and regulatory issue across mobile ecosystems. |
| Cross-Platform | A game designed to run across multiple platforms such as mobile, PC, and console, often with shared accounts or progression. Cross-platform strategy affects technology choices, live ops complexity, and marketing, but can increase addressable audience and lifetime value. |
Genres & Design Models
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| RPG (Role-Playing Game) | A genre focused on character progression, stats, equipment, and narrative or world-building. RPG systems often include levelling, skill trees, and loot, and can be single-player or multiplayer. In free-to-play, RPG progression is frequently used to structure long-term retention. |
| Roguelike / Roguelite | Games built around repeated “runs” with variation and risk. Roguelikes typically emphasise permadeath and procedural generation, while roguelites often include meta-progression that carries over between runs. The structure supports replayability and variety with relatively bounded content. |
| CCG / TCG | Collectible Card Game and Trading Card Game. These games centre on building decks from a collection of cards with differing abilities and rarity. In digital CCGs, monetisation often comes from packs, crafting systems, cosmetics, and battle passes tied to competitive play. |
| Gacha | A monetisation mechanic where players spend currency for a chance to receive randomised rewards, often characters or items with varying rarity. Gacha systems are typically supported by event cycles, limited-time banners, and “pity” mechanics designed to manage player frustration and spend. |
| Idle / Incremental | Games where progress continues with limited active input, often through timers, automation, and compounding upgrades. The appeal is a steady sense of growth with low friction, making idle mechanics common as sub-systems inside broader free-to-play games to drive habitual engagement. |
| Meta-progression | Progression that persists outside a single match or run, such as permanent upgrades, unlocks, or account-level advancement. Meta-progression creates long-term goals and retention loops, and is common in roguelites, competitive games, and live service titles with seasonal systems. |
| Pay-to-Win (P2W) | A perception that paying players gain decisive gameplay advantages over non-paying players. P2W risk is a major design and community management issue in competitive and social games, and is often mitigated through cosmetic monetisation, fair matchmaking, and careful economy constraints. |
| Cosmetic Monetisation | Monetisation based on non-gameplay-affecting items such as skins, emotes, avatars, and visual effects. Cosmetic systems preserve competitive integrity while enabling high spend, and are common in live service games where identity, status, and social signalling drive demand. |
Esports & Competitive Gaming
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Esports | Organised competitive gaming played in leagues, tournaments, or structured ladders, typically supported by broadcasting, sponsorship, and community ecosystems. Esports can be publisher-led or third-party-led, and success depends as much on game design and spectator appeal as on prize pools. |
| Competitive Integrity | The fairness and trustworthiness of competitive play, including anti-cheat, consistent rules, balanced gameplay, and reliable tournament operations. Integrity is crucial for serious competitive communities because perceived unfairness quickly undermines engagement and long-term viability. |
| Ranked Ladder | A progression system that places players into skill tiers based on match results and performance. Ranked ladders drive long-term engagement through status and improvement, and they create a measurable path from casual play to competitive play in many multiplayer games. |
| MMR / Elo | Skill-rating systems used to estimate player strength and support fair matchmaking. “MMR” is a general term for matchmaking rating, while Elo is a specific rating model adapted from chess. These systems help keep matches competitive and reduce churn caused by one-sided games. |
| Matchmaking | The process of grouping players into matches, usually aiming for fairness, acceptable queue times, and good network quality. Matchmaking often balances skill, party size, region, and latency, and is one of the most sensitive systems in competitive games. |
| Anti-Cheat | Tools and processes used to detect and prevent cheating in online games, including aim bots, wall hacks, scripting, and account boosting. Anti-cheat combines technical detection with policy enforcement, and is essential for maintaining competitive integrity and player trust. |
| Metagame (Meta) | The dominant strategies, character picks, builds, or team compositions that emerge as players optimise play. The meta shifts over time due to patches, new content, and player discovery, and managing it is a key part of live balancing in competitive games. |
| Balance Patch | An update that adjusts gameplay parameters to improve fairness, variety, or overall health of the game. In competitive titles, balance patches are used to prevent stale metas, address overpowered strategies, and maintain spectator interest. |
| Tournament Ecosystem | The structure of competitions around a game, from grassroots events to professional leagues. Ecosystems can be open (many organisers) or franchised (controlled teams and slots), and they shape player pathways, sponsorship value, and the long-term sustainability of competitive play. |
Hardware & Performance
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) | The processor responsible for rendering graphics and running highly parallel workloads. In games, GPU capability strongly affects resolution, visual effects, and frame rate, and is often the limiting factor in performance-heavy scenes compared to CPU or memory constraints. |
| CPU (Central Processing Unit) | The general-purpose processor that handles game logic, simulation, AI, physics, and many non-graphics tasks. CPU performance influences frame stability and responsiveness, especially in complex scenes with many entities, networking, or heavy simulation. |
| FPS (Frames Per Second) | The number of frames rendered each second. Higher FPS typically feels smoother and can improve competitive play, while inconsistent FPS creates stutter. Many console games target 30 or 60 FPS, while competitive PC titles often aim higher where hardware allows. |
| Frame Time | The time taken to render a single frame, usually measured in milliseconds. Frame time consistency matters as much as average FPS: uneven frame times create judder and perceived lag even when headline FPS numbers look acceptable. |
| Latency | A measure of delay between an input and what the player sees or experiences in-game. Latency can include input latency, network latency, and display latency, and it is particularly important in competitive multiplayer where responsiveness affects performance and fairness. |
| Tick Rate | The frequency at which a game server updates the game state, usually measured in ticks per second. Higher tick rates can improve responsiveness and hit registration in shooters, but increase server cost and bandwidth requirements. |
| Resolution | The number of pixels used to display the game image, such as 1080p, 1440p, or 4K. Higher resolution increases visual sharpness but demands more GPU performance, often requiring trade-offs with frame rate or graphical settings. |
| VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) | A display feature that synchronises a screen’s refresh rate with the game’s frame output, reducing tearing and perceived stutter. VRR can make performance fluctuations feel smoother, especially on consoles and PCs where frame rates vary under load. |
Game Development & Production
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Game Engine | The underlying software framework used to build and run a game, providing core systems such as rendering, physics, input, audio, animation, and tooling. Engines can be commercial (e.g. Unreal, Unity) or proprietary, and they shape production workflows and technical constraints. |
| Middleware | Third-party software components used within a game, such as physics, audio, analytics, networking, or ad monetisation SDKs. Middleware can accelerate development but adds dependencies, licensing costs, and integration complexity that must be managed across platforms. |
| Build | A compiled, runnable version of a game created from the current code and assets. Teams create frequent builds for testing and review, and production pipelines often include automated build systems to reduce errors and ensure consistent releases across devices and platforms. |
| Vertical Slice | A highly polished section of a game that demonstrates the intended quality and experience, often used for internal alignment, funding, or milestone sign-off. A vertical slice is not the full game, but it should represent the target level of art, gameplay, and performance. |
| Milestone | A defined delivery checkpoint in development, often tied to a scope of features, content, or quality targets. Milestones are used to plan production, manage publisher relationships, and control risk, but can become counterproductive if they reward “paper progress” over real playability. |
| Crunch | Sustained periods of overtime used to hit deadlines in game development. Crunch is controversial because it can harm team wellbeing and long-term productivity, and it often reflects planning issues, late scope changes, or production processes that do not surface risk early enough. |
| QA (Quality Assurance) | The discipline of testing a game to identify bugs, usability issues, performance problems, and edge cases. QA can include manual testing, automated tests, compatibility testing across devices, and structured processes for reproduction steps and prioritisation. |
| Certification (Console Cert) | The approval process required by console platform holders before a game can be released or updated. Certification checks technical requirements, stability, and compliance with platform rules, and it introduces lead times that affect release planning and live ops cadence. |
| Roadmap | A forward-looking plan outlining upcoming features, content, and major workstreams over time. Roadmaps help align teams and stakeholders, but in live games they are typically treated as directional rather than fixed, as priorities shift based on data, performance, and player feedback. |
Publishing & Business Models
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Publisher | A company that supports the development, marketing, distribution, and operation of a game. Publishers may provide funding, UA, platform relationships, live ops expertise, and operational scale in exchange for revenue share, ownership, or control. |
| Developer | The studio or team responsible for building the game itself, including design, engineering, art, and production. Developers may be independent, publisher-owned, or work under contract, and their commercial risk varies significantly by business model. |
| First-Party vs Third-Party | First-party games are developed or published by a platform holder for its own ecosystem, while third-party games are produced independently and distributed across platforms. The distinction affects funding, exclusivity, economics, and platform support. |
| Advance & Recoup | A common publishing structure where the publisher provides upfront funding (the advance) which is later recouped from game revenues before profits are shared. Recoup terms strongly influence developer risk, cash flow, and long-term upside. |
| Revenue Share Model | An agreement defining how revenues are split between parties such as developers, publishers, and IP holders. Revenue shares vary widely based on funding, risk, platform fees, and operational responsibility. |
| IP Licensing | The use of an existing intellectual property, such as a film, TV, or sports franchise, under licence. Licensed IP can accelerate awareness but introduces royalties, approval constraints, and dependency on external brand holders. |
| Exclusivity | An agreement restricting a game to a specific platform or storefront for a defined period or permanently. Exclusivity can provide funding or promotion but reduces addressable audience and long-term distribution flexibility. |
| Live Publishing | A publishing model focused on operating and growing a game after launch through UA, live ops, analytics, and monetisation optimisation. Live publishers often run portfolios of games and scale successful titles aggressively based on data. |
Data, Analytics & Experimentation
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cohort | A group of players who share a common starting point or characteristic, such as install date, acquisition channel, or geography. Cohort analysis helps teams compare retention, monetisation, and behaviour over time, and isolate the impact of product changes or UA shifts. |
| Segmentation | The practice of dividing players into meaningful groups based on attributes or behaviour, such as spend tier, engagement depth, skill, or progression stage. Segmentation enables targeted experiences, more accurate analysis, and better decision-making than relying on overall averages. |
| Funnel | A sequence of steps players move through, such as install → tutorial → first session → first purchase. Funnel analysis identifies drop-off points and friction, helping teams improve onboarding, conversion, and retention by focusing on the specific stage where players disengage. |
| KPI (Key Performance Indicator) | A metric used to track performance against a goal, such as retention, ARPDAU, conversion, or crash rate. In games, good KPIs balance short-term responsiveness with long-term outcomes, avoiding optimisation that improves one metric while damaging player value elsewhere. |
| A/B Test | An experiment that compares two variants of a feature, offer, or flow by randomly assigning players to different groups. A/B testing helps teams make decisions based on measured impact rather than opinion, and is widely used in onboarding, pricing, and live ops design. |
| Control Group | The group in an experiment that does not receive the new change, used as a baseline for comparison. Control groups help isolate causality by showing what would have happened without the intervention, reducing the risk of misattributing natural variation to a product update. |
| Statistical Significance | A measure of whether an observed result is likely due to a real effect rather than random chance. In experimentation, significance helps teams avoid false positives, but must be interpreted alongside effect size, power, and practical impact on player experience and revenue. |
| LTV Modelling | The process of estimating future revenue from players based on early signals such as retention, conversion, and spend patterns. LTV models support UA decisions by predicting whether cohorts will be profitable, but they require careful calibration and constant validation as behaviour changes. |
| Attribution | The method used to assign credit for an install or conversion to a marketing source, such as a network, campaign, or creative. Attribution underpins performance UA, but is complicated by privacy changes, probabilistic methods, and the difference between click-based and view-through influence. |
Industry Structure & Roles
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Game Studio | An organisation responsible for developing games, ranging from small independent teams to large, multi-project studios. Studios may be independent, publisher-owned, or part of larger groups, and their structure often reflects the scale and complexity of their games. |
| Indie Studio | A small, typically independent game studio that self-funds or uses limited external support. Indie studios often prioritise creative control and efficiency, but face higher commercial risk and resource constraints compared to publisher-backed teams. |
| Co-development | A collaborative model where multiple studios share responsibility for building a game. Co-development is common in large productions and live games, allowing teams to scale capacity, access specialist skills, and accelerate delivery without fully internalising headcount. |
| Outsourcing | The use of external partners for specific tasks such as art production, QA, localisation, or porting. Outsourcing helps studios manage costs and flexibility, but requires strong production oversight to maintain quality and consistency. |
| Producer | A role focused on planning, coordination, and delivery. Producers manage schedules, scope, dependencies, and communication across disciplines, helping teams balance creative ambition with practical constraints. |
| Game Director | The role responsible for the overall creative vision of a game, including gameplay, tone, and player experience. Game directors align design, art, and technology around a coherent vision and make high-level trade-offs when priorities conflict. |
| Technical Director | A senior technical leader responsible for architecture, performance, tooling, and technical standards. Technical directors bridge creative goals and engineering reality, ensuring the game can scale, ship, and operate reliably. |
| Live Ops Team | A cross-functional group responsible for operating a game after launch. Live ops teams typically include product, design, engineering, analytics, and marketing expertise, and focus on retention, monetisation, content cadence, and service reliability. |
| Central Services | Shared teams or functions that support multiple studios or games within a group, such as analytics, UA, platform relations, technology, or HR. Central services create efficiency and consistency, but must balance standardisation with individual team autonomy. |
About Neon River
This glossary is curated by Neon River, an executive search firm specialising in senior leadership roles across games and technology companies. We work closely with founders, boards, and investors to hire CTOs, CPOs, CFOs, and other senior leaders into high-growth and complex businesses.
It is designed as a practical reference resource - updated over time - reflecting how the games industry actually operates, rather than how it is often described. The definitions draw on real operating experience across live games, platforms, data, monetisation, and leadership, particularly within the games industry.
It is designed as a practical reference resource - updated over time - reflecting how the games industry actually operates, rather than how it is often described. The definitions draw on real operating experience across live games, platforms, data, monetisation, and leadership, particularly within the games industry.