Session definition

Can anyone define what a session is? Does a new session trigger every time the game is played? What about when a player locks their device?

Thanks

 

Hi @LukasO,

A player session is one continuous play time, potentially with breaks that are less than thirty minutes. For example, a player just started and played your game for fifteen minutes, this will count as a new session. They then lock the device. If they unlock the device twenty minutes later and continue playing then it will still be considered the same session but if they unlock the device thirty five minutes later and continue playing then it will be considered a new session.

 

Is a session always recorded no matter how long it is?
I.e. if the game starts up but is closed after 30 seconds does that still register as a session.
We are seeing big differences in stats recorded by Google analytics versus Unity analytics in this respect. Unity is always lower than Google which strictly records every time the game is opened but doesn't record sessions that start or stop. I would expect the result the other way around, Unity numbers should always be higher.

 

Hey @monark,

Yes a session is always recorded no matter how long it is but sessions 'expire' after a thirty minute period. For example, if a player opens and plays for 30 seconds, closes the app, then opens it again twenty minutes later, closes it after another 30 seconds, and then opens it another time twenty minutes later, this would all count as one session. Based on the information you provided me about Google, this same scenario would be counted as three sessions. Does this sound like it accurately describes what you are seeing reflected in both Dashboards?

 

Yes that makes sense now.

 

Hi @mpinol, thanks for the helpful explanation. In your last example, I assume that Session Length reported would be the full time elapsed -- in this case, 21 minutes, correct? It wouldn't extract just the active play time and report that (1 minute) as the Session Length, would it?