FTUE stands for first-time user experience. In games, it means everything a new player sees and does from the moment they open the game for the first time until they understand how it works and have decided whether to keep playing. In a mobile game, that is usually somewhere in the first five to 15 minutes.

The FTUE includes the tutorial and everything around it: the loading screens, the first menus, the first reward, the first failure, the first time the game asks for something, and the moment the game stops guiding the player and lets them play.

What happens during the FTUE

Three things happen in that window, roughly at the same time.

Players learn the rules. What is the goal? How do you win a level? What do the numbers at the top of the screen mean? What happens when you fail?

Players learn the controls. Tap, swipe, drag, hold. Which buttons matter now and which can be ignored until later. On mobile, players are often learning all of this on a small screen with one hand.

Players decide whether the game is for them. A player can understand the rules and the controls perfectly and still decide, a few minutes in, that this is not the kind of game they want to spend time on. That decision often happens before they have seen the best part of the game.

A good FTUE teaches enough to play, gets out of the way quickly, and shows the player a reason to come back before they decide to leave.

Why the FTUE matters for retention

Player retention means the share of players who come back to a game after a set number of days. D1 retention is the share who return the day after installing. D7 and D30 measure the same thing a week and a month later.

Every player goes through the FTUE, so it has a direct effect on D1 retention. Industry data puts mobile game churn at 97% of users by Day 30. Players who leave during their first session never reach anything the game offers later.

Emhance's D1 ROI calculator estimates what a D1 lift is worth for your game, from your installs, current D1, and ARPDAU. Our studies have produced an average 7% increase in D1 retention. D1, D7 and D30: what each retention window tells you goes through each window in more detail.

FTUE and UX in games

UX in games, short for user experience, covers how a game feels to use: how clear its screens are, how responsive its controls feel, how easy it is to find things, and how well it communicates. Game UX differs from UX for apps and websites in that some friction is intended. A puzzle is meant to be hard to solve, and a boss is meant to be hard to beat.

During the FTUE, the player does not yet know which difficulty is intended and which is a mistake. If the game makes them struggle with the interface before they have enjoyed the challenge, many will not stay to find out.

Common FTUE failure modes

The patterns below come from our own studies. For a wider view, our FTUE Benchmarks Report analyzes 7,600 clips from first sessions across 22 games, minute by minute.

Too much teaching, too early

The tutorial explains systems before the player has any reason to care about them: currencies, upgrades, crafting, guilds. In a fighting game we studied, tutorial overload in the first two minutes produced 22 low-engagement clips across four of seven participants. Engagement rose once the tutorial stopped and players could fight freely. The same participants said the tutorial was too complex and the first two fights were too shallow, because they could win them by button-mashing.

The tutorial teaches a different game

The tutorial shows one way to play, and the game then asks for another. Peaksel's analytics showed players leaving The Vault before level 3. In a six-player study, we found the tutorial had trained players on a single vault face, with guided, step-by-step interaction. The live game expected them to explore several faces and spot which ones held hidden interactive elements. Within the first 45 seconds of live gameplay, engagement dropped consistently, and players showed signs of confusion. The tutorial had never shown them how exploring worked. Peaksel redesigned levels 1 to 3 and reported 9.6% more users completing level 3, 7.3% more reaching level 10, and a 14.5% total LTV uplift. The Peaksel case study has the full story.

Interruptions during play

Pop-ups, hint prompts, and dialogue boxes that appear in the middle of play pull attention away from the game. In the same fighting game study, in-fight prompts produced 14 low-engagement clips across five participants. Engagement dropped the moment a prompt appeared, even when the prompt was helpful.

Passive stretches

Several screens in a row with nothing to do: a win screen, then an animation, then a reward reveal, then a loading screen. In the fighting game, a chain of five passive screens at the end of each level meant attention had dropped by the time the next interactive moment started. A 30-second wall of story dialogue before the first fight had a similar effect.

Asking too soon

Asking players to spend, watch an ad, or wait for energy before they have something they want. In our Monopoly GO! study, the game showed zero monetization offers on Day 1, and players built their first Landmark before any purchase prompt appeared. In our Merge Mansion study, the five participants spent a combined 34 seconds out of energy across their whole opening session, after the game had already taught them the loop. In each game, players had something they wanted before anything limited them. The Monopoly GO! and Merge Mansion deconstructions cover each opening in detail.

What to test before launch

An FTUE playtest puts the game in front of players who have never seen it and records what happens. Before launch, a study should be able to answer these questions:

• Do players understand the goal of the first level without being told twice?

• Can players use the core controls by the end of the tutorial, without prompts?

• Where does engagement drop during the first 15 minutes, and what is on screen when it does?

• Where does engagement rise? These moments tell you what to show players sooner.

• Does the tutorial match the game? Check the first level after the tutorial ends, where the guidance stops.

• How many passive screens sit between moments of play?

• When does the game first ask for something, whether money, an ad view, or waiting, and does the player want something by then?

• What would players say the game is about after the first session?

How to set up the study

Recruit players who match your target audience and have never played the game, or a close version of it. Colleagues, friends, and community regulars already know too much about the game to give you a first-time reaction.

Let participants play freely instead of giving them tasks. Asking them to play until they'd normally put it down shows you where the FTUE loses them. Keep interviews to before and after the session, so talking does not change how they play.

Six to eight participants per player segment is usually enough to see the same problem come up more than once. In the fighting game study above, four of seven participants disengaged during the same stretch of tutorial. Our Beginner's Guide to FTUE Playtesting covers recruitment, session design, and analysis for a first study. For more on sample size, see how many playtesters do you need?

At Emhance, we record participants through a webcam while they play and analyze their facial expressions and eye movement second by second, alongside a recording of the screen. That shows where engagement rose and fell during the FTUE, and what was on screen at each point. See how Emhance playtesting works.

For the wider context, see game user research: what it is and what teams use it for.

Book a demo to see an FTUE study run on your own game.