One of the most important metrics is how many paying users a game has. How can someone dig deeper with the paying users metric?

Understanding how well the game coverts the number of new registered users each month into new paying users (PUs) of the game, when trended, provides insight into initial user satisfaction of the game. Calculating the average marketing cost for new paying users on a monthly basis provides an important tool to understand how far management can grow revenue based on the marketing budget.

The total number of paying users for the game represents the most valuable core of the game's customer base -- the ones who have proved they want to spend money on your products and have the means to do so.

Are there any other metrics that should be of interest to someone trying to understand how well a game is being operated by management and help them compare one game to another?

A more fine-grained view of the metrics discussed earlier would include the total number of UVs from marketing efforts including paid search and online ads (MUV -- marketed unique visitors), the number of new registered users that come from marketing unique visitors on a monthly basis, the percentage of marketed unique visitors that convert to registered users which are due to the marketing efforts (MRUs percentage), and the average marketing cost per marketed registered user.

All of these metrics put the spotlight on the effectiveness of the marketing budget. They also can provide insight into which marketing efforts deliver unique visitors and registerd users most cost effectively.

So all of the metrics we have discussed in this article can be used to compare one online game to another even across genres?

Yes. These metrics allow someone to understand how well a game is being operated and can be used to compare any online game to any other.

Is there a hypothetical example that can help explain how to use the metrics just discussed?

OK, say it is April 1st, and there are two different games, a one time, flat-fee-to-unlock-everything Flash-based RPG, and a typical free-to-play microtransaction-supported downloaded client MMORPG. Some hypothetical metrics for January, February, and March for each follow:

For the one-time payment, flat-fee Flash game above we can see a few interesting things. First, unique visitors are climbing every month while marketing cost per unique visitor has remained flat; this indicates that the game operator has increased the breadth of the ad inventory they are buying, that free referrals are picking up, or a combination of both.