Features Worth Stea… Borrowing: Lessons from Duolingo, Tinder, DraftKings, Crypto.com & BeReal
You’ve noticed it: your favorite non-gaming apps are feeling a bit more... gamey. Streaks, XP, quests, surprise events, it’s no longer just decoration. Why? Because more apps are pulling from the deep playbook of game design. Not to turn the apps into games, but to claim a spot in your daily routine and make closing the app feel like you’re missing out.
In a recent Deconstructor of Fun episode, Mishka sat down with Kalle Heikkinen from AppRefinery to explore how these principles shape everything from language learning to dating and finance.
In this article, I’m going deeper into five case studies - Duolingo, DraftKings, Crypto.com, Tinder, and BeReal - to see how apps target habits, structure engagement, and where features need deeper integration to work.
If you’re building an app and want real engagement, not just hoping for retention, keep reading. Because here’s the truth: gamification isn’t a magic fix. It’s a strategic tool. At Deconstructor of Fun and AppRefinery, we analyze feature-level loops, reward systems, and motivational design that turn downloads into daily habits. And we help you do it right.
*Note on measuring impact: Isolating the exact impact of individual gamified features on KPIs like retention or revenue can be complex. Many features interact synergistically, and external factors also influence user behavior. Nonetheless, tracking overall engagement trends alongside thoughtful design gives a strong signal of what’s working.
Now, let’s look at how these game design principles play out in five very different apps.
DUOLINGO: From Streaks to Systemic Engagement
The challenge:
Duolingo has long been the king of playful, addictive language learning, with streaks, XP, and leaderboards making it feel like a game. But some users argued it was just drills with points, not real language mastery.
The solution:
Duolingo Max addresses this head-on with AI-powered features like Roleplay Mode, Explain My Answer, and Video Call Lessons. These tools simulate real conversation, provide meaningful feedback, and introduce productive friction, requiring users to think, speak, and reflect. The result is deeper session engagement and more authentic learning.
A closer look at Duolingo’s features on the AppRefinery platform
Here’s what that shift has meant in practice:
Retention improved as users faced real conversational challenges that demanded investment.
Session depth increased, moving from quick taps to reflective learning.
Monetization has grown alongside engagement. in Q2 2025, DAUs rose 40% year-over-year, revenue climbed 41% to $252.3M, and ARPU increased ~6%, partly from more users upgrading to higher-priced plans like Duolingo Max (Reuters, Nasdaq).
Max is still a small share of subscribers, but it’s already boosting both engagement and revenue by framing the premium tier as a tutoring-level upgrade rather than just ad-free access.
Duolingo stands out not for its visible game elements, but for its deliberate system design, which scaffolds real learning and keeps users coming back. Many apps copy the surface mechanics, but few replicate the underlying structures that drive sustained commitment and meaningful progress.
DRAFTKINGS: Making Sports Betting a Social Ritual
The challenge:
Betting apps are inherently spike-driven. Engagement ebbs and flows with the sports calendar, and traditional features center on solitary, transactional interactions.
The solution:
DraftKings added a social meta-layer - social features layered on top of the bet-check-settle loop to add community, shared rituals, and status. Bet Feed, Betting Groups, and Pools make betting a community ritual rather than a solo activity, thus giving users reasons to check in even off-season. This creates habitual engagement, turning the app into a sports bar that’s open 24/7.
DraftKings’ core social features as seen by AppRefinery: Bet Feed for real-time wager streams, Betting Groups that build communities around shared picks, and Pools – social contests that turn predictions into leaderboard races.
The new features shift the app from being a transactional tool to a community hub, which means users stick around longer, come back more often, and spend more over time. In short: retention curves flatten, lifetime value climbs, and word-of-mouth spreads as bettors turn into fans who bring their friends.
DraftKings’ strategy is beginning to pay off.
In fiscal 2024, the company generated $4.77 billion in revenue and reported its first positive Adjusted EBITDA of $181.3 million (versus a $151.0M loss in 2023). In Q2 2024, Monthly Unique Payers (MUPs), users with at least one real-money paid engagement in a month, rose 6% year-over-year to 3.3 million, reflecting stronger retention. More importantly, average revenue per MUP jumped 29% to $151, nearly five times the user growth rate and well above analyst expectations (Source: MarketWatch).
The overall trajectory is clear: DraftKings is converting growth into real financial performance. Its layered social features may not be individually broken out in earnings, but they’re part of a product approach that’s driving both stickier user behavior and stronger monetization.
CRYPTO.COM: Rewarding Habit, Not Just Hype, Another Win
The challenge:
Crypto engagement has historically been reactive: users surge during market highs and disappear during slumps. This volatility made daily app usage unpredictable, with little incentive to log in unless prices were spiking, crashing, a major coin was listed, or significant news broke. The challenge was to flatten this curve and make engagement habitual, not purely market-driven.
The solution:
Crypto.com tackled this by layering in game design principles: Daily Missions, Streak Bonuses, Achievement Tiers, and a diamond-based reward economy. These systems give users consistent reasons to return, regardless of market fluctuations.
Crypto.com’s engagement features, as analyzed by AppRefinery: Daily Missions and Onboarding Tasks rewarded with diamonds, Streak Bonuses that flatten user activity curves, Achievement Tiers for intrinsic motivation, and the Diamond Store with randomized rewards.
Publicly available data on engagement is limited and inconsistent, making it difficult to quantify their progress with hard numbers. Still, their clear focus on layering meaningful incentives and game mechanics signals a deliberate strategy to reduce dependence on market volatility for user retention.
This shift toward habit-forming design is a core principle in modern fintech and crypto apps that aim to build resilience beyond market hype. While it remains to be seen if Crypto.com can fully smooth out the usual boom-and-bust user cycles, their approach positions them well for more stable, long-term engagement.
TINDER: LiveOps Energy Without a Core-Loop Evolution
The challenge:
Tinder’s swipe mechanic became the poster child of modern dating: a loop built for fast, appearance-based judgments and instant feedback.
But over time, the thrill of endless swiping has started to wear off, especially when the matches don’t lead to the kind of connections users hoped for. This mismatch drives lower engagement and growing dissatisfaction. After all, the daily swipe habit doesn’t always keep people engaged or bring them closer to real connections.
AppRefinery identified Tinder’s engagement features: Swipe Night, Vibes prompts, Swipe Surge alerts, and the AI-powered Game Game – all meant to make swiping feel more dynamic.
The approach:
Tinder tried to address this with LiveOps-style features: Swipe Night (interactive stories), Vibes (timed prompts), Swipe Surge (urgency-driven alerts), and The Game Game (AI-powered play).
These additions aimed to create short bursts of intense engagement (events or nudges that make the app feel more alive in the moment) without changing the fundamental match → chat → date loop. They added momentary variety, but didn’t deliver on long-term emotional depth or progression.
During this period:
Direct revenue fell 4% YoY in Q2 2025 to $461M
Paying users declined 5% to ~14.1 million
Overall revenue remained flat, despite new features
(Source: Match Group Q2 2025 Earnings)
I’m not linking these results directly to the features, only noting that they were part of the engagement strategy during a period when Hinge, with its more commitment-oriented loop (nudging users toward longer conversations, deeper profiles, and intentional matches), grew revenue 25% and payers by 18% in 2023.
Recognizing this contrast, Match Group is now investing $50M into AI discovery, matching tools, and features like Double Date and Face Check, a strategic shift toward deeper emotional engagement and core loop innovation.
Source: Match Group Q2 2025 slides
The Takeaway: Tinder’s case shows that while LiveOps features can increase attention, without meaningful emotional arcs and evolved systems, user fatigue is inevitable.
BEREAL: Feature Expansion That Needs More Follow-Through
The challenge:
BeReal gained initial traction with its unique premise: one authentic post per day, shared simultaneously by all users. It created friction, ritual, and identity. But as the novelty wore off, user activity began to decline. The challenge was how to scale beyond the core mechanic without losing what made it special.
The approach:
Post-Voodoo acquisition, BeReal expanded aggressively by adding features including:
Infinite posting
Algorithmic feeds (Nearby, Friends of Friends)
Group chats and verified influencer accounts
Broader content visibility and discovery
This was meant to build a deeper content ecosystem and social scaffolding, mirroring more mature platforms.
But these features rolled out inconsistently and lacked cohesive structure:
No streaks, prompts, or time-gated loops to pace interaction
No reward or meta systems to anchor user identity
UI shifts felt disconnected from the original value prop
So far, the results are underwhelming: global downloads are down ~50% YoY, and there’s no public evidence of a rebound in DAUs or session length.
A glimpse into the platform’s evolution post-Voodoo acquisition – including verified influencer accounts, a Nearby Feed for endless browsing, expanded visibility to friends of friends, and group chats with their own BeReal-style prompts. Source:AppRefinery.
Community feedback reflects a platform in transition. Features roll out inconsistently, UI changes feel disjointed, and the original constraint-based appeal.
BeReal may be losing sight of what daily habit it’s trying to own. Without that clarity, new features risk diluting the ritual rather than strengthening it. As a result, there’s little friction, anticipation, or reward, and thus, little lasting retention.
The Takeaway: More features don’t equal more engagement. Impact comes from how well those features are integrated into a structured system: one that guides behavior, builds identity, and rewards commitment. Without that connective tissue, users experience feature fatigue or confusion, not loyalty.
Conclusion: Habit First, Systems Always
The most successful consumer apps start by defining the daily habit they want to own, and only then design everything around making that habit irresistible, repeatable, and rewarding. Systems, not single features, make this possible. A streak mechanic is just a counter unless it’s embedded in a loop that builds identity. A social feed is just noise unless it reinforces the reason people come back every day.
Across these cases, the difference lies in whether the habit is clearly defined and systematically supported. Duolingo has a scaffolding for “smart fun” learning. DraftKings has built a sports-watching ritual that survives the off-season. Crypto.com is working to make crypto engagement habitual, not just market-driven. Tinder and BeReal remind us that novelty without core evolution risks fatigue, and that scaling works only when the core habit scales with it.
At Deconstructor of Fun and AppRefinery, we work with product teams to map these habits, design the loops and meta systems that reinforce them, and ensure every feature feeds the larger system. Because in the end, retention isn’t magic - it’s the outcome of a habit you’ve earned.
