Leaderboards are standard in games and social apps. Could the game or app you're building benefit from a real-time leaderboard? Thanks to gamification, It probably can - Read our complete guide on making your own multi-purpose leaderboard. In this guide, you'll learn to build a new leaderboard for social apps, games, and more.
Building an online leaderboard
Leaderboards are critical for multiplayer games and social apps as they are used to increase competition among players and users. Players and users want to see how they stack up against others, and competition builds with comparison. Players or users, when motivated, will continue to attempt to improve their scores. Leaderboards are a fantastic way to retain users, and they spend longer on your game or app than they would have otherwise.
Creating leaderboards online for...
Online gaming leaderboards
Online games are where you've most likely encountered leaderboards before. Most games have a scoring system or method that you should expand to add leaderboard functionality. Leaderboards for games usually show a scoreboard at the end of a round or match where players can compete for the highest score. However, you can also display a real-time leaderboard with player scores during the game. Real-time scorekeeping gives users instant feedback, which in turn increases gamer satisfaction.
Social app leaderboards
Engaging users on social media apps can be problematic, and the attention you can capture may need to be improved. However, just like with online gaming - everybody likes to win. Leaderboards are a way to gamify the experience. You can track hashtags, accounts, and handles in a custom leaderboard to see a real-time picture of the most active users. Use social account activity as your own leaderboard maker source and reuse activity. Adding a leaderboard to your social app helps to retain users as well as encourage users to spend more time participating.
Event attendance leaderboards
Real-time live events can benefit from a leaderboard widget because they keep users watching and online. Using leaderboards for your live event app is a great way to engage your live audience. Leaderboards can help your users follow along or catch up with the scores in a live event. Make a drop-down option so it's easy to share leaderboards, as they are also a great way to reach more users who weren't previously participating.
Steps for building a custom leaderboard for your app
The greatest challenge of how to make a scoreboard and build real-time features is building the infrastructure behind those features. However, there's a more accessible option that's perfect for game developers or anyone who could benefit from leaderboards.
You only need to write front-end code using PubNub SDKs, such as the PubNub Unity SDK. PubNub manages and scales the infrastructure for you in real-time.
One major problem for game and app developers is that real-time features can't be a priority because your developers are focused on building the best game or app experience possible and not reinventing the underlying mechanics that power it. Use PubNub to power all your real-time experiences, and your entire game or app can be built without a backend - saving you a ton of time and money. Your focus will be entirely on making your game or app.
Use PubNub to power your entire game or app, including all player or user actions, multi-user chat, notifications, and leaderboards.
Making a leaderboard with PubNub
PubNub removes the time needed to set up and manage your infrastructure so you can focus on developing your application or game. Use PubNub services to quickly build real-time interactions with scalability, reliability, and enterprise-grade security.
Ready to do more with your game or app and PubNub? Want to learn how to make a leaderboard from one of our tutorials from one of your templates? Check out these resources to help build custom leaderboards:
