5 App Gamification Examples You Must Copy Today

Gamification isn’t just for games anymore. For app developers, it’s a powerful tool: the strategic use of game-like elements such as points, achievements, leaderboards, avatars, even mini-games helps them engage users, drive retention, and, just as importantly, grow revenue.

In today’s competitive app space, retention matters more than ever. Acquiring new users is expensive and time-consuming, while keeping your current ones loyal is better.

In fact, increasing retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25-95%.

Gamification creates a sense of victory, progress, and belonging that keeps users coming back. It delivers personalized experiences that make small daily tasks feel like big wins.

Let’s break down five standout apps that are absolutely nailing gamification—Duolingo, Habitica, Nike Run Club, Forest, and Snapchat—and see what’s working right now. Stand by for successful strategies, retention rates, and a comparison of the best gamification examples.

Gamification Tactics Comparison Table

Duolingo: Turning Education into a Habit

Do you want to hear a few mind-blowing facts about Duolingo?

The world’s leading education app had 100 million monthly active users (MAU) in the second quarter of 2024, 34 million daily active users (DAU), and 8 million PAID USERS. Their revenue growth for that fiscal period was 41%, amounting to $178 million in only three months.

What makes everyone’s favorite language learning app so successful?

Surely, you already know the answer: gamification.

The founders of Duolingo understood early on that learning requires the same thing that profitable apps do, and that’s everyday commitment. It was clear to them from the start that they would need a UX design that is easy and fun, but not just that. They needed a habit-forming app.

Duolingo retains users by helping them form a learning habit, and it does that through gamification. More precisely, it relies on a core loop mechanic with 4 components:

1. Trigger: Duolingo re-engages inactive users by sending them push notifications 24 hours and 7 days after the last activity. However, these are not just any push notifications. They come from Duo Mascot, Lily, or Zari—the app’s relatable game-like characters.
2. Action: The app’s main action is daily language lessons with animations and sound effects that resemble the game mechanics. The progress bar that tracks correct answers is another element of gamification that keeps Duolingo users actively engaged.
3. Rewards: Duolingo users receive XP points for every daily task they complete. Over time, the app also rewards them with Badges and other tokens of appreciation that are there to trigger their sense of achievement and keep them coming back for more.
4. Expanding: The Duolingo learning experience is structured like a leveling system where users keep advancing beyond their daily tasks and skill levels. The app’s progression mechanics keep unlocking new levels, competitive Leaderboards, and leagues.

Duolingo also uses performance feedback to introduce new challenges and keep users reaching for more. Each challenge delivers another dopamine hit, and each task well done feels like a little win. It’s these wins, more than anything else, that boost the app’s user retention.

Duolingo’s retention rate?

55% of users return to the app a day after their last session.

Habitica: RPG Mechanics in a Productivity App

Habitica is a leading player in the $11.42 billion habit-tracking apps market, and for a good reason. Like Duolingo, it uses gamified elements to support habit formation and help users get stuff done. It has over 5 million downloads from Google Play and 4.9 stars from 63.7K users.

There are hundreds of productivity apps, so how is Habitica special?

That’s obvious from the moment you open the app. Habitica doesn’t shy away from its gaming roots, but proudly shows them with a fun pixel art style and retro arcade UI design.

There are multiple layers to Habitica’s gamification that expand the UX design beyond a daily to-do list and help create a system that turns daily habits into an immersive RPG adventure:

• Avatar Creation: Habitica users get to create their own character during onboarding. By doing so, they become emotionally invested in the process before tackling a single task. This effective engagement tactic, known as the IKEA Effect, is used to hook users.
• Social Mechanics: It’s darn hard staying productive when you have too much going on. Social support is more than welcome, so Habitica lets you join guilds and track progress with others. Social mechanics introduce accountability and multiplayer motivation.
• Wins & Rewards: Users earn XP and other points for completing real-life tasks. Small achievements, visual progress tracking, and consistent feedback create rewarding experiences that keep users emotionally invested and reinforce habit formation.

Habitica’s retention rate?

A whopping 40% or more over 6 months—an incredible feat for a productivity app.

Nike Run Club: Competitive Milestones for Solo Runners

Nike Run Club is one of the most popular fitness apps, with approximately 160 million active users. That’s no surprise. Backed by a global brand, it’s an app that seamlessly tracks runs and syncs with your favorite sports gear, helping you hit your weight and fitness targets through gamification.

Almost every fitness app has gamified features, but Nike Run Club goes beyond the basics. It delivers a tailored, habit-forming experience that keeps users on the move—and in stores.

In fact, Nike’s app users spend 3x more than its guest customers.

Here’s what keeps them running back:

• Personalization: The more users use the app, the more data it collects. Nike has intel on each runner’s preferred sports, activity levels, and running style, which it uses to custom-tailor their experience. That makes each user feel seen, appreciated, and supported.
• Challenges: Users can start weekly and monthly challenges, and do that individually or with friends. This helps them set and commit to time-bound goals that ensure their engagement. It’s a win-win: users hit their fitness goals, and Nike boosts its app stickiness.
• Progression: Audio cheers and milestone badges—both gamification staples—boost motivation mid-run. When each achievement is acknowledged, users feel reinforced and driven to stay on track and aim higher. Only the true champions get cheers and medals.
• Competition: Nike uses global and local leaderboards to introduce competition. Runners can compare their performance with friends or more accomplished athletes, which adds a layer of accountability and drives unmotivated users to run longer and push harder.

But that’s not all. Nike Run Club also adds a twist with conditional perks. Have you hit your goals? You get to unlock Apple Music playlists, Headspace meditations, or ClassPass credits. You didn’t give your best? You miss out on free stuff. Users try harder out of fear of missing out.

Nike Run Club’s retention rate?

Gamified rewards increased Nike’s app engagement by 21% and made it the #1 running app in the world.

Forest App: Visual Growth Through Focus

Forest is a charming, important, and impactful app that uses gamification to blend productivity with environmentalism. According to its developers, Forest has facilitated the planting of over 1.6 million trees in Africa—all thanks to its loyal user base of over 40 million people.

The app uses tree planting as its central mechanic. The idea is simple: stay focused, and you’ll grow a tree. Give in to distraction and scroll your phone, and your tree will die.

Forest makes people actually want to stay off their phones and pay for it.

Once again, it’s all due to a clever gamification strategy:

• Hook: You need a strong reason to stay off your phone? How does reforestation sound? The app throws a convincing hook that most (responsible) people would gladly take. By starting a timer, you don’t only start a focused work session; you also plant a seed.
• Game: If you stay off your phone, the seed will grow into a tree. If you exit the app to scroll or check notifications, the tree will wither. Repeat seeds and sessions will create a lush forest that represents your focus and mindfulness over days, weeks, or months.
• Reward: Watch your digital forest grow—a visual reminder that your commitment to staying off the phone has a meaningful impact on the world and your productivity. Forest has no XP or badges, but that’s OK. Watching a tree grow is the only reward you need.

Forest also branches out with multiplayer potential. In a city-wide mobility campaign, it ranked London users based on how much CO2 their bike rides saved, translating trees into environmental impact. This campaign attracted 35,000 eco-conscious Londoners and turned them into loyal users.

Forest’s retention rate?

It’s one of the top paid productivity apps in 136 countries—and that’s saying something.

Snapchat: Streaks and Gamified Communication

Snapchat isn’t just a messaging app—it’s a masterclass in gamified engagement. With 453 million daily active users (as of Q4 2024) and over 850 million monthly active users earlier this year, it’s clear that Snapchat has transformed casual chatting into a daily ritual for millions worldwide.

So, how does Snapchat keep its users texting day after day?

• Daily Streaks: Snapchat’s streak feature encourages users to send snaps to friends daily, turning communication into a game of consistency. If you miss a day, the streak resets. This amplified the fear of missing out and created a strong reason to stay engaged.
• Snapscore: Every snap sent or received contributes to a user’s Snapscore, which is a numerical representation of their activity. This score helps build a sense of achievement and introduces an element of friendly competition among users who know each other.
• Trophies and Hidden Achievements: Beyond the visible metrics, Snapchat rewards users with trophies for various milestones, from sending snaps with specific filters to engaging with new features. These hidden achievements encourage continual use.

These gamified elements make Snapchat sticky and keep users engaged even without traditional game content. The social component is crucial, whether communal or competitive.

Snapchat’s strategy pays off big time. In the last quarter of 2024, the company reported $1.5 billion in revenue, making a 14% year-on-year increase. On top of that, its premium subscription service, Snapchat+, doubled its subscriber base to 14 million by the end of 2024.

Snapchat’s retention rate?

90% of Snapchatters who use the app for a full year stay loyal to it for the next 5 years.

Conclusion

Whether it’s Duolingo’s XP and streaks, Habitica’s RPG-style quests, Nike’s milestone badges, Forest’s focus-driven tree planting, or Snapchat’s streaks, the most effective app gamification mechanics are simple, fun, and habit-forming, but they also tap into our very human emotions.

Apps like these prove that you don’t need cutting-edge features when you have a smart feedback loop that rewards user action. You don’t know where to begin? Start small: implement one loop, observe how users respond, and improve accordingly until they keep returning again and again.

FAQ

🏆 Does gamification always require a reward system?

Gamification apps don’t have to reward users for their actions, even though many of them use points, badges, and other types of rewards. Many successful apps rely on progress tracking, feedback, and emotional triggers such as visual growth and social or environmental accountability.

🤔 Can you apply gamification in non-consumer apps?

Yes, you can. Gamification works in B2B and enterprise apps, as well. For example, it’s often used in employee training, CRM adoption, and to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration. Game-like elements can also make complex projects more engaging and easier to tackle.