What do The New York Times, LinkedIn, and French newspaper Le Monde mobile apps have in common?
Simple daily games. And those games drive retention better than almost anything else they publish. The Times recorded 11.1 billion game plays in 2024. LinkedIn’s puzzle games get 84% of players back the next day. Le Monde saw a 10% jump in active subscribers after launching targeted game campaigns.
Your radio app? Likely just a catalog of streams and podcasts.
The retention problem nobody wants to measure
Mobile apps lose 70% of users within 90 days. Radio apps typically retain less than 20% of their users after 30 days. But instead of fixing retention, the focus is on the total number of downloads.
Here’s what actually matters: how many people who downloaded your app last week are still using it today? The answer is probably ugly. Which is exactly why you probably don’t measure it.
What the New York Times figured out
The purchase of Wordle by the Times brought tens of millions of new users. But the real insight is that: subscribers who engage with both games and news content have the highest retention rates of any usage pattern.
The Times learned something important: people read news when something big such as elections, disasters, or scandals happens. But games? People play Wordle on a boring Tuesday in July just like they do on election day.
The Times now has over 10 million daily players. The number of users coming for games is more than double the traffic for news.
LinkedIn did the same thing
LinkedIn launched daily puzzles in May 2024. Not to become a gaming platform, but to turn a transactional tool (something people only opened during job searches or to promote their professional success) into a daily destination.
Results: 84% of players return the next day. 80% come back a week later.
A professional networking site now has users checking in daily to play Crossclimb. Daily games do something news can’t pull off: they get people back even when nothing’s happening.
Radio has been sleeping on this
Radio stations have run on-air games forever. Cash call-ins, trivia, name that tune. You know games work for broadcast. But you never connected that to your apps.
The industry never understood how much potential simple games have for generating and retaining digital audiences. The technical solutions exist and are simple and cheap. You just haven’t extended it to the one place where you can actually measure audience retention.
Games + Audio = the perfect combination
Simple games don’t require sound. Crosswords, Sudoku, word searches, and card games are all visual. Which means people can play them while listening to radio, podcasts, audiobooks, music, etc.
Someone could solve a crossword in your radio app while simultaneously listening to your stream. You’re not competing for attention. You’re complementing it.
The game keeps them in your app longer. The audio keeps them engaged with your content.
Adding it and keeping it simple
Keep it simple. A daily crossword with three difficulty levels. Maybe a word search. Sudoku if your audience skews older. Trivia questions tied to your content (music, local news, whatever fits your brand). The goal is 5-10 minutes max.
Let people share their scores if they want, compare with friends, check a leaderboard. But make it optional. Some people just want to solve the puzzle and move on. And whatever you do, no timers, no pressure. This isn’t a school test.
Jonathan Knight, the Times’ Head of Games, explains their philosophy: “We’re not trying to get you to spend 24/7 in our app. We want a very healthy daily habit where you feel good about what you’ve done.”
You should adopt the same approach. Games aren’t slot machines designed to keep people gambling for hours, they are gentle nudges to open the app daily.
The retention math
If someone downloads your app and never opens it again, you’ve gained nothing. If they open it daily because there’s a new crossword? You’ve created a habit.
Habits are worth more than one-time visits. Someone checking your app daily is more likely to listen to one of your streams or one of your podcasts, see your content, become a loyal listener and engage with your content.
LinkedIn’s 84% next-day return rate isn’t magic. It’s the result of creating a daily ritual that feels achievable and rewarding.
Apps using game mechanics improve retention by 22% on average. Both daily active users and session length increase. All of this matters when you’re competing with Spotify, YouTube Music, and every other audio platform.
What Radio should do
Here’s what to do: add one simple game to your app, promote it (in app and on-air) and watch what happens to your retention metrics over the next month.
You don’t need to build anything custom. White-label solutions for crosswords, Sudoku, and trivia already exist and you can integrate something similar without breaking the bank.
This isn’t about becoming a gaming company. It’s about giving people one additional reason to open your app tomorrow instead of just when they remember you exist.
The Real Question
Digital transformation isn’t about building a podcast network or launching a video vertical. Digital transformation is about getting people to consume your content digitally and keeping them coming back. Games aren’t some weird trick: they’re a best practice borrowed from successful digital products.
If your app only streams audio, you’re ignoring best practices around digital retention.
Games create differentiation, habits and great retention.
So I would reframe the question from “should we add games to our app?” to “why haven’t we already?”
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