38 interesting gamification examples to unlock user engagement & loyalty

What are some of the most viral apps in the world? That’s right, games! The psychology and elements behind these games make the user experience more fun and engaging. So what happens when you extract these game elements and put them into a non-game context? App Samurai states gamification for apps motivates viral growth and increases app engagement.

We’ve listed up to 38 examples of apps using gamification to increase user engagement and boost growth. You will learn how they applied game elements to motivate the user behaviors that help them grow

38 interesting gamification examples to unlock user engagement & loyalty

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  1. Gamification examples fintech
  2. Gamification examples banking
  3. Gamification examples health & fitness
  4. Gamification examples telecom
  5. Gamification examples education
  6. Gamification examples SaaS
  7. Gamification examples retail
  8. Gamification examples ecommerce
  9. Gamification examples mobility apps
  10. Gamification examples productivity apps
  11. Gamification examples social networking apps
  12. Gamification example loyalty programs
  13. Gamification example travel apps
  14. Other gamification examples

Gamification examples from fintech

Smarty Pig Gamification Example: gamify your finances to save more

Smarty Pig is a finance app that helps users hit their financial goals. You start by setting a savings goal, such as buying a new bike. Every time you add money to your account, it will automatically ‘piggyback’ a part of it to your savings.

The app visualizes how close you are to reach your goal and makes budgeting feel satisfying, instead of a chore. You can also completely personalize your account according to your saving goals. In only two years the app has signed up over 40,000 customers and a $250 million deposit.

Qapital & Monefy Gamification Examples: change financial habits for the better

Both tools have an expense tracker and allow users to automatically save money. They use gamification for apps to install saving habits.

On Qapital you can create triggers for every time you buy a coffee to save 50 cents. Monefy uses visual feedback to show you how much you’re spending in different categories compared to your balance.

Both apps help you make saving goals more tangible, by visualizing how close you are to achieving them. Sometimes, seeing your money in a different way helps you realize your spending behavior in a different way. Qapital has over 1.8 million users and Monefy has a rating of 4.5 stars in the Google Play store.

Moven Gamification Example: CRED program slashes customer acquisition costs

Moven is a branchless, paperless, and even plastic-less bank. They’re one of the leading online banks using gamification to improve app engagement. They built the CRED program to collect more user data. The tool is branded as an assistant that helps you make financial decisions.

CRED uses information about users’ financial decisions instead of traditional credit scores. Factors like social media intelligence are important in its ratings. Unlike a credit score, CRED is designed to be a sort of financial health score. The score goes up when a customer gets better at saving or managing their money.

Moven is able to acquire customers at a cost of $50 per customer due to word of mouth, which is over 80% lower than the industry average. Furthermore, users are encouraged to use Moven to make all their payments, as the tool gives them unique insights into their spending behavior.

Increase user engagement & loyalty on your fintech app with gamification. Discover how!

Gamification examples from banking

OTP Banka Hrvatska Gamification Example: motivate product education to drive sales

European bank, OTP Banka Hrvatska implemented gamification for apps in order to sell more specific financial products. Up to 90 percent of bank products remain unused.

Users earned points and prizes for completing different challenges linked to product education. Instead of promoting products to increase consumption, the bank chose to educate its customers on products and benefits.

Of the 30 to 40-year-old target group, 87% completed at least one challenge, with an average of 13.3 challenges per participant. The bank got e.16% more sign-ups for mobile banking services, as well as a 13% increase in prepaid Mastercard usage.

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Gamification examples from health & fitness

Fitbit Gamification Example: leverages gamification to keep users healthy

Fitbit is a wearable fitness tracker connected to a gamified health app. Its users earn badges for reaching certain milestones in the app such as reaching a specific amount of miles. They will also track your progress towards that goal with a progress circle and other live stats.

Fitbit uses gamification for apps to promote health

Additionally, Fitbit creates a sense of social connectedness by allowing you to compete with friends or share your results on social media. The social element seems to be important for the majority of the community as 20 million of the 30 million total active users are actively engaged in the social feed.

Zombies Run Gamification Example: spicing up your run

The Zombies Run app is a different kind of health app. It will interrupt your music or radio with a news broadcast about a zombie epidemic. You are of the final remaining humans, so if you want to survive you need to run! The app will give you triggers to run faster or collect supplies along the way.

Zombies Run used gamification for apps to make running fun! With over 200 different missions and an award-winning story, you will always find motivation for your workout. The app has over 1 million users and is the biggest smartphone fitness game, ever.

Freeletics Gamification Example: leverages community to promote fitness

Freeletics is a workout app with a bunch of virtual training programs and a virtual coach! Nonetheless, it’s gamification for apps that makes it better than a regular fitness app. Freeletics has a social feed where people can follow each other and compare their performances.

On the user profile, you can track how many workouts a user completed, what level they are at, and the badges they have earned along the way. Just like Strava or Runkeeper, the community drives people to support each other or compete. It proves once again how powerful peer pressure can be for increasing user app engagement.

Headspace Gamification Example: creates zen-masters

Headspace is a meditation app with tons of exercises, tutorials, and tips to chill out! To start with, users get rewarded for reaching milestones in the app and can unlock more features such as animations to improve their meditation. In addition, you can join meditation groups or share your results with your buddy list or through Facebook. This way, users get a sense of relatedness to the community.

Finally, there are also weekly group challenges such as ‘meditate for 500 minutes’ or ‘try every Single’. Thanks to a fun user experience, Headspace has over 2 million users!

Headspace ensures daily app engagement through gamification & rewards

Calm Gamification Example: streaks incentivize daily engagement

Calm is the world’s biggest wellness app. In 2022, they generated $1.5 million more in revenue than Headspace, their main competitor. How are they so far ahead? To be sure, they can thank gamification examples like streaks. Basically, streaks track each user’s consecutive days of app usage. And that’s especially important for meditation apps!

According to research, many meditators think a daily routine is “necessary”. Given this, Calm helps users by sending streak reminders and rewarding their daily engagement. In short, it’s a win-win!

mhealth gamification apps

Insight Timer Gamification Example: a personalized user experience

Trawl the reviews of Insight Timer, and you will find many happy customers praising the app’s personalization! Indeed, the popular meditation app offers its community a wide range of personalized features:

  • Can pick different bell sounds (beginning and end!)
  • Customize the duration of sessions
  • Personalized profile pictures
  • See personal statistics
  • Set daily reminders

Essentially, these features give users autonomy and ownership over their experience. And autonomy is shown to lead to improved well-being and engagement. Of course, that’s pretty important for a wellness app! Given all this, it’s easy to see how Insight Timer has the highest Day 30 user retention in the industry!

app gamification examples personalization

Nike+Fuel Gamification Example: collects more data through gamification

Nike+Fuel drives app engagement through gamification to collect more data about its users. Nike+Fuel is a personalized fitness app that allows users to track their activity. After completing different runs users can improve levels, and earn trophies and badges for their performance. They can also link the app to social media to compare and compete with people from all around the world.

The game didn’t just boost Nike’s customer loyalty, it helped to increase the productivity of their R&D and digital marketing department.

SWEAT Gamification Example: community features enhance the social experience

In just 2 years, SWEAT became the most profitable fitness app in the world. A huge part of that success comes from its community. As an app designed specifically for women, it puts an emphasis on community engagement. That’s why screens incentivize you to share your trophies and even a “Sweaty Selfie” after a workout! For one, these features are motivating because they give users the chance to show off their efforts to their friends. In turn, that fires up a sense of competition – and motivates the friend too!

In fact, a recent study found that the mechanism of competition enables interaction. In turn, the closeness of the community motivates the intention to exercise, ‘increasing confidence and connection’. It’s a built-in positive feedback loop!

fitness mHealth app development

Adidas Runtastic Gamification Example: leaderboards drive users to reach the top

When Adidas acquired Runtastic for $240M, they set about making it the best-running app on the market. What did they do? Well firstly, they streamlined the user experience and focused completely on running (previously, the app offered functionalities for sports like biking and even sailing). But they also took gamification to another level!

To name just a few gamification examples, the app introduced goal-setting features, challenges, and a leaderboard. When it comes to user engagement, the leaderboard made a huge difference. That’s because it introduces competition – and that’s motivating! In addition, ranking on a leaderboard is a form of positive reinforcement. And this can keep users engaged time and again!

Alessio Laiso, UX Product Designer @Adidas Runtastic – “The newly introduced running leaderboard, for example, added an important social element that significantly increased user engagement.”

gamification example leaderboard apps

Jillian Michaels Gamification Example: personalized goal-setting focuses on users

On her fitness app, popular TV personality Jillian Michaels leads 800+ exercises. Sounds great, but without one gamification example, this abundance could backfire! Indeed, there is something called the “Paradox of Choice”. In essence, the more choices you give a user, the less likely they are to choose!

To decrease the choices a user has, and to facilitate engagement, the app asks users to set a personal fitness goal during onboarding. Basically, this allows the app to customize what exercises the user sees. In turn, this maximizes the value of the app!

personalization customized mHealth apps

Urban Sports Club Gamification Example: get more leads with gamification for apps

The Urban Sports Club is a flat-rate fitness company. In an effort to attract more leads, they created their own rock-climbing game as an interactive Facebook advertisement. In the game, users had to climb as high as they could to win a 3-month contract. The potential reward and interactive experience were enough motivation to play the game.

Urban Sports Club's gamified lead generation

Most users replayed the game over 3 times, which shows high engagement. Urban Sports Club was able to collect data from all players who participated. The ad increased organic traffic by 39% and had a 45% lower cost per click.

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Gamification examples from education

Duolingo Gamification Example: makes language learning fun

Duolingo is a language learning app that has mastered gamification for apps. Instead of going through long and boring lectures, Duolingo offers fun, bite-sized lessons that make you want to keep learning!

The app uses an in-app currency called ‘lingots’ which rewards users for completing various activities on the app. Additionally, users can collect badges when attaining achievements such as reaching the next level or milestone. To boost user motivation even further, Duolingo adds a dash of competition with a scoreboard based on experience points.

Today the app has over 300 million active users worldwide, securing its place as the number one language-learning app.

Kahoot Gamification Example: turning classrooms into gameshows

Kahoot is a learning game app where students can compete in virtual quizzes. The teacher or instructor sets up a series of questions. The questions and multiple choice answers are then projected onto a scared screen, and users can select the right answers on their own devices.

Students receive points for every question they answer correctly and extra points for being faster than others. They can either play individually or in teams. After every question, users will see their score go up, as well as their ranking on the leaderboard.

By using app gamification, Kahoot engages students with fun and interactive quizzes, encouraging screens and a sense of competition. It beats the classroom every day!

Kahoot's gamification leaderboard boosts student motivation

PayPerks Gamification Example: education meets rewards

PayPerks is a financial education platform that rewards users for taking financial courses and saving-like behaviors. It’s mostly aimed at lower-income individuals to encourage saving and financial literacy.

PayPerks turned boring financial studies into game-like experiences with fun and easy-to-understand explanations. Their platform incentivizes real-world actions such as card usage, or online behaviors that help the user install the right habits. They have helped millions of consumers get through tens of millions of tutorials and given away hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes.

Open University Gamification Example: progress bars provide positive reinforcement (and more)

It is not just mobile apps that are taking advantage of gamification! In fact, Open University uses gamification to motivate students. For instance, the website’s ‘study planner’ features a checklist of unfinished tasks. What’s more, there is a progress bar that tracks the student’s total effort. For something as demanding as a full degree, these features make a huge difference!

When a checklist displays unfinished items, this harnesses a psychological phenomenon called the “Zeigarnik effect”. Basically, incomplete tasks stick with us more than those we complete! In other words, students are motivated to return and study. Moreover, checklists and progress bars can provide positive reinforcement and help direct students toward their goals. As a result, this reduces negative feelings like anxiety or being overwhelmed! In short, these gamification examples create better students!

education gamification boost study

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Gamification examples from telecom

GiffGaff Gamification Example: build a community-based telecom business

Giffgaff is a community-based telecom company that offers flexible monthly plans. To become a member you buy a SIM card from other GifGaff members. Users get points for participating in the community, which they can convert to cash to pay for their mobile phone or to donate to charity.

The program rewards users for helping other members on their forum or recommending friends. This has helped the community grow to over 3 million users good for over 600 million dollars in revenue.

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Gamification Examples from retail

Target Gamification Example: collecting the holiday wishes with Wish-list app

To prepare for the holidays, Target created the ‘Holiday Wish’ app. Here kids could experience a 3D animated game where they could send digital wish lists to Santa. Parents would then be able to instantly order or find their kids’ wishes.

The fun holiday experience and convenient set-up helped Target boost traffic during the most important time of the year!

App engagement was high, with 61% of users checking in weekly and another 31% multiple times per day. The app generated over 75,000 downloads and 100,000 wish lists. On average a Wishlist comprised around 30 items with a value of $1,500. Over six weeks 9,200 new Target accounts were created and the app collected a sales potential of $92.3 million!

Under Armour Gamification Example: Trivia app lets the NBA fans hold their own playoffs

Under Armour is a global sportswear brand. During the NBA playoffs, they partnered up with basketball player Steph Curry to launch a surprise Trivia game called StephIQ. The game allowed users to answer a series of trivia questions, every time Curry scored his first three-pointer of the game.

Participants who could answer all eight questions correctly could either win and split the prize pool, or enter a special raffle that included prizes like free tickets, signed shoes, and Under Armour gear. The app caused an increase in NBA’s viewership, as well as sales for the brand itself.

Gamification Examples from ecommerce

Woot Gamification Example: use scarcity to drive more sales

Woot is an ecommerce platform that offers daily deals, at a limited quantity and a special price. They reveal a new product every day at midnight. Its exclusivity has driven users to constantly refresh their page between 11.59 PM and 00.01 AM.

Woot plays on curiosity and scarcity to trigger the “fear of missing out” among their users. This way the ecommerce site gets around 10 million monthly visitors that are really engaged. The original idea behind Woot also made up for a lot of free promotions on social media.

eBay Gamification Example: maximizing profits through unpredictability

eBay was one of the first to use gamification for apps in the ecommerce industry. It uses bidding, feedback scores, and a badge reward system to motivate both buyers and sellers.

Joining a bidding war is like the lottery, the more you enter the more you’re able to win. You’re also prone to spend more due to the sense of competition and the fear of losing your opportunity. Buyers see bidding as competition. Winning a bid is like winning the competition. It doesn’t matter if you overpaid, as long as the endorphins give you that awesome feeling!

Sellers, on the other hand, can earn badges like ‘trusted seller’ and get better percentages as an eBay sellers in return. It’s about risk, engagement, and rewards.

Teleflora Gamification Example: rewards users for being part of the community

Teleflora is an online flower shop. They created a loyalty system that rewards users for participating in their community.

They rewarded users with points for doing things like customer reviews, and comments, answering customer queries, and sharing Teleflora on Facebook. Once users reached a certain level they earned badges and titles like ‘influencer’. There was even a leaderboard displaying the top contributing members.

With a 105% increase in Facebook referrals, Teleflora’s conversion rates went up by 92%!

UNice Gamification Example: the one feature that helped quadruple newsletter sign-up rates

UNice is an online hair store. In an effort to get more sign-ups for their newsletter, they created a spin-the-wheel pop-up to greet new visitors. You simply have to enter your email to get a chance to win coupons, free lashes, or even an iPad! While doing so, you would also be automatically subscribed to their newsletter.

It’s a great way to grab the attention of your users and turn them from passive visitors into active participators. They’re curious to find out their reward, for something as simple as their email. Spin-the-wheels show a 3 to 4 times higher sign-up rate for their newsletter compared to traditional pop-ups.

Pop ups can boost web and app engagement by 3 to 4 times

SHEIN Gamification Example: keep shoppers actively engaged

SHEIN is one of the largest online retailers in the world with over 4 million unique monthly visitors. So how do they get app engagement like this?

For starters, they have a discount countdown timer to create a sense of urgency with their users. Furthermore, they have a points-based reward system that gives users points for active participation and ambassadorship.

For instance, when users check in daily or make product reviews. They can also win points for special challenges. 100 points equals 1 dollar, which you can spend in the shop. This way SHEIN rewards the behaviors that help them grow.

How SHEIN points reward system boosts daily app engagement

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Gamification examples from mobility apps

Waze Gamification Example: rewarding app engagement & participation

Waze is a crowdsourced GPS app, where its users share real-time traffic with each other. Detrimental to its success is the fact that its users help them to accurately map traffic situations around the world. So how do they do it?

Every Wazer has a mood. You start out as a Newbie. If you want to improve your mood you will have to complete the first goal, which is to drive 100 miles. Waze rewards participation with experience points and visualizes it through progress bars and on a leaderboard.

How to get app engagement like Waze with gamification

Users can compare their participation with their friends or people from all around the world. Next to its gamification elements, the calling of having a reliable traffic app also adds to users’ motivation. The community of engaged drivers has helped Waze get over 130 million monthly active users.

Gamification Example Bird: motivates people to ride electric scooters

Bird is an electric scooter charging company. They use gamification for apps to motivate users to hunt down scooters and charge them.

Literally, anyone can become a Bird Charger. The community is self-organized and relies on its users to charge as many scooters as possible. You can ‘find’ and ‘capture’ scooters or ‘birds’ and charge them at home. In return, users earn a monetary reward for every scooter. You earn more for scooters that are harder to find, which makes it an ideal side hustle for a lot of people.

Uber Gamification Example: boosting engagement on Uber Driver app engagement

Uber’s driver app is a prime example of gamification for apps to improve loyalty and encourage good behavior. The app is built to improve the driver experience by implementing game elements into the work.

Drivers can take on quests and win badges for the achievements they complete. Additionally, their earnings are tracked within the app and directly linked to the progress they make in the game. If drivers complete a certain amount of trips in a specific time frame, they might get additional monetary rewards.

How Uber uses gamification for apps for employee satisfaction

Spicing up the drivers’ experience with game-like triggers creates the right behaviors for drivers. Not only does the game make work more fun, but it also keeps their drivers engaged to move forward.

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Gamification examples from productivity apps

Todoist Gamification Example: how to use gamification to get shit done

Todoist is a productivity app that helps you organize your days, get reminders and manage tasks easily. The app not only helps you keep your planning on track but also motivates you for completing your work!

For instance, users earn karma points for completing a task. However, they also get negative karma for missing deadlines. These two types of rewards play on two different user motivations: achievement and avoidance. Furthermore, users can unlock new levels based on their karma points, and share them with friends on social media.

The app has reached the milestone of 5 million users and will keep boosting its users’ productivity!

Forest Gamification Example: uses gamification for apps to help you focus

The Forest app allows you to focus when you need to the most. Whenever you want to stop your digital distractions you can open Forest, set a timer, and plant a seed. You can’t go outside the app until the timer is completed, if you do give up the seed will die.

The app has a purpose, which is to grow the tree. If you bail on your tasks, you will have to watch the tree die. Again, this works on a sense of accomplishment and avoidance. The more tasks you complete, the more trees you will plant. Finally, you can invite your friends or compete with the global community on a leaderboard to see how your productivity matches up.

Habitica Gamification Example: become the prime habit-forming app

Habitica is a habit-installing app. It helps you create daily routines in a better, faster, and most importantly fun way! Their slogan literally is: Gamify your life!

The app helps you set clear goals and visualizes the progress you’re making toward them. Users are rewarded for continuing their habit with new avatars. Oftentimes, reminding users to actively work on their goals is enough motivation to keep them going. The app has over 4 million members around the world.

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Gamification examples from social networking apps

Snapchat Gamification Example: ensures app engagement with a simple trick

Snapchat is a social messaging tool built around a few gamification principles. First of all, the “snaps” you get from friends have limited availability. The fact that you can’t open a snap after 24 hours means you’ll have to watch it before, or never know what snap you got!

Additionally, Snapchat rewards daily app engagement with streaks. Not checking in daily will break your streak or ‘best friend’ status with the person you snap the most with. Lastly, there are trophies you can collect for achievements on the app. These are usually linked to the use of new features such as ‘sent a video for the first time’ or your app engagement like ‘you have sent 100K snaps’. These game elements encourage the behaviors that drive participation on Snapchat.

The app has over 265 million daily active users worldwide and continues to grow. Their users send as many as 4 billion snaps every single day, that’s over 2 million snaps per minute.

Tinder Gamification Example: became the most addictive dating app

Tinder is a dating app with insanely high app engagement due to one simple reason: unpredictability. Tinder works by showing you profiles that you can swipe left or right, depending on whether you’d like to meet this person or not.

The app basically has all the data it needs to match you with the perfect profiles, however, it doesn’t do that.

Tinder shows you random matches to keep you engaged. It’s the unpredictability of the variable reward that gets people in the endless swiping loop similar to a slot machine. Admit, it wouldn’t be as fun if we knew every swipe would be a great match!

LinkedIn Gamification Example: gamified onboarding with 1 simple feature

Setting up a LinkedIn profile is very similar to playing a game for the first time. Their progress bar shows how far your profile is from being completed. You will get clear instructions every step of the way on how to improve your profile.

LinkedIn uses gamification for onboarding

The progress bar also indicates your profile strength. Improving your profile will help you ‘Get found for more opportunities!’ A combination of clear goals and instant visual feedback will boost app engagement and user motivation immensely.

Foursquare Gamification Example: triggers users to check-in

Foursquare is a live map of your friends. It works by having individual users check in their location, everywhere they go. But why would they check in, to begin with?

You can earn badges by checking in on different venues. Some cities even have their own badge. Other badges are coupled to special events or user participation, such as checking in a certain number of times. Finally, you can also become Mayor of a place if you’re the one that has checked in the most.

The app has over 10 different levels for superusers. From level one to three you can edit venue information. The higher the level, the more things you’ll be able to do in the app. It’s the relatedness and competition that helped Foursquare get 55 million monthly active users with up to 9 million daily check-ins and 3 billion global visits every month!

SOUNDS Gamification example: help users unlock more value

SOUNDS is a music-sharing app with over 8 million users worldwide. If you want to share music, you will have the SOUNDS watermark on every post. You can remove the watermark by inviting more friends to join the app. SOUNDS also employs exclusivity in its features. For instance, you can’t see your own profile views unless you upgrade to the VIP version.

The app uses curiosity and avoidance to drive more downloads and engagement. They reward users to drive behaviors that fuel growth, such as inviting friends. Finally, by making their features less accessible SOUNDS boosts monetization.

Zenly and Houseparty Gamification Examples: make waiting less boring

Zenly is a friend map similar to Foursquare and Houseparty is a video calling tool to do virtual house parties with your friends. What these apps both have in common, is they implement fun messaging while the user has to wait.

Zenly for instance greets its users with funny and human messages when they open the app and even in its notifications. This way their users feel closer and safer to sharing their information on the app. The app has over 1 million users of which 340,000 are engaged at least once per month and 80,000 daily.

Houseparty entertains also uses celebration screens & funny messages while users are waiting on their friends. In 2020 the app was one of the fastest-growing in the Appstore with over 17 million downloads.

Eliminate churn and boost app engagement with fun

Telfie Gamification Example: employ gamification to train recommendation engine

Telfie is a social entertainment network, like Foursquare for content. You can check in when you’re watching your favorite TV shows and movies, and share them with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. They boost app engagement with free tickets and bonuses. Users get rewards after registering when they share what they’re reading or when they interact with the system.

Telfie also uses gamification for apps to train their recommendation engine. This way users get more accurate recommendations for films, books, or music according to their preferences. The user motivation here is to get more value out of the app. After millions of check-ins and deals with brands like Nickelodeon, CNBC, and FOX the app shut down.

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Gamification examples from loyalty programs

Starbucks Gamification Example: gamified rewards program

Starbucks’ reward program is built to boost customer loyalty. It is also one of the most successful apps of its kind. The app rewards users with stars for every order they place. Later, they can redeem the stars for free food and drinks.

Starbucks' boosts customer loyalty with gamification for apps

As users collect more starts, they also improve their levels. At 450 stars you reach the gold level. This means you’ll get extra benefits such as extra shots of espresso, dairy alternatives, whipped cream, and more, on the house! Simply incentivizing users to keep buying from Starbucks engaged over 16 million customers. The loyalty app is responsible for 40% of the total sales in the US!

Gilt Groupe Gamification Example: built a loyalty program on social rewards

The Gilt Groupe is a member-based e-commerce site that sells exclusive clothing and accessories. The site runs time-limited sales which anticipate scarcity and urgency as emotional triggers. They created the Gilt Noir category for their most loyal customers.

These customers represent the top 1% of Gilt shoppers based on the total value of purchases. Members get a scented candle, a member’s card, and early access to preview all product sales. They even get exclusive sales that are only available to them!

Needless to say, users are driven by a desire to be a part of this exclusive community.

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Gamification examples from travel apps

Goibibo Gamification Example: the gamification of the travel industry

Goibibo is an Indian travel app that used in-app currencies to boost the number of travel bookings. During the Indian Premier League, the app introduced goCashFest. Users could cash here every time the Mumbai Indians played. They gained points for every 4s, 6s, 50, and 100 wickets and wins during the match.

Users could use this cash to make bookings on Goibibo’s travel platform. The goCash initiative still serves as a gamified loyalty program. Users can unlock exclusive benefits such as free meals and seats, and win badges for engaging in their online community.

Goibibo gamified the travel industry with a badge reward system

Other examples of gamification

Dropbox Gamification Example: how handing out free storage space helped Dropbox grow by 3900%

Dropbox is one of the best-known storage apps in the world. They kickstarted their growth with a gamified referral program. You could win free storage space for taking a tour in Dropbox, referring friends, or connecting your social media accounts.

Gamification for apps often drives viral growth

Both you and your friend got up to 500 MB if they signed up. You could win a total of 16 GB if you maxed out the number of referrals!

They grew by 3900% in just 15 months. To put that in perspective they went from 100,000 registered users to 4 million. Dropbox still uses its rewards program today to drive sales to Dropbox Pro among other goals. They now have over 14 million active users.

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