Why is LinkedIn making you play games?
How LinkedIn is using games to boost engagement and professional networking.
In May 2024, LinkedIn introduced small games on its platform. A professional networking app adding games? That made me scratch my head. Six months later, I decided to unravel this mystery. If you’re just as curious, let’s dive in! 🏊♀️
Let’s first understand what are games and why do people engage with them?
Games are designed to entertain, offering an escape from daily life while triggering positive emotions — accomplishment, joy and excitement. I agree that losing can be frustrating, but the drive to win makes your come back to the game again! Successful games create habit loops, rewarding players and nudging them to return.
Now, why would LinkedIn, a platform built for careers, learning, and professional networking, want to tap into this behavior?
Why did LinkedIn introduce games in 2024?
LinkedIn is a professional social network allowing users to share their professional life updates, learnings, qualifications and learnings.
However, from last couple of years, it had gained the notorious reputation of having shallow and repetitive content (self-congratulatory posts, copied content and what not). It was showing signs of decline in engagement and growth. LinkedIn is also a platform which one tends to avoid as it induces the envy emotion amongst us humans.
This is when the LinkedIn games would rescue the platform from the deep ditch (hopefully). One catch is: you can’t play the games multiple times in a day but only once a day. Well, this would be necessary otherwise there’s a risk of users spending more time in playing the games than using the core features of LinkedIn. The once-a-day limit ensures games act as a daily hook, nudging users to return regularly.
This is how the games will be beneficial for LinkedIn:
- Daily Engagement Boost: The games will become a new avenue for users to engage with on a daily basis, bringing in more daily active users on the platform. These are small puzzle games which can help users get mind off work or take small breaks.
- Encouraging Professional Connections: The games will promote healthy competitions and professional connections since the platform allows you to share your progress with your friends or challenge them. They have a streak system as well to push the users to play the games daily and a University leaderboard to drive competition.
- Shifting the Platform’s Emotional Tone: Instead of feeling the negative emotions (jealousy, not-good-enough) on the platform, users would feel accomplished / happy / excited by playing the games, hence changing the narrative of the platform.
- Following Proven Success Model: The New York Times saw engagement soar after acquiring Wordle. LinkedIn is likely aiming for a similar effect, keeping users on the platform longer in a non-work context.
Future Prospects: What’s Next for LinkedIn Games?
If games succeed in boosting engagement, LinkedIn could take things further:
- Gamified Job Search: Imagine completing challenges or quizzes that help match you with potential jobs.
- Interactive Networking Games: What if LinkedIn introduced multiplayer networking events where users could engage in simulated business scenarios?
- AI-Driven Career Development Games: AI-powered skill-building challenges tailored to help users upskill in their industry.
- Virtual Networking Spaces: Think of a digital seminar hall where you can move around and network in a gamified 3D world.
Will LinkedIn Games become a new habit, or is this just another gimmick? Let me know in the comments!
Disclaimer: This disclaimer informs readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
