The Hotjar playbook, translated to gameplay
If you've used Hotjar on the web, you already know how this works. Here's the same toolkit, rebuilt for what players actually do in a native game.
Gameplay session replay
Watch real players play your game — the same "watch the recording" insight, but it’s actual gameplay video, not a web page.
Touch overlays
Every tap, swipe and hold drawn right on the gameplay — see exactly what players reached for, missed or hammered.
Funnel analytics
See where players quit — by level, screen or custom event — then watch the replays of the ones who dropped.
Record on game events
Fire capture from any event in your game. Debugging Level 5? Trigger StartLevel5 and record from that moment on.
Real device metrics
FPS, RAM, model and API level from real sessions — context Hotjar’s web tooling was never built to capture.
Privacy by design
Only the game window is captured. No IPs, no device IDs, no fingerprinting — GDPR & COPPA in mind.
Games aren't websites.
Hotjar is brilliant — for the web. But it has never supported native mobile apps, and a game isn't a page of clicks and scrolls.
- No native SDK Hotjar runs on websites and web apps — there’s no native iOS, Android or Unity capture.
- Gameplay, not the DOM A game is rendered frames and touches, not clickable HTML elements a web tool can read.
- Performance is the product Players notice a dropped frame. IV Metrics scales quality in real time and won’t record on struggling devices.
- Privacy built for players Only the game window is captured — no system UI, no ads, no IPs, no device IDs.
Hotjar vs IV Metrics
Both help you stop guessing. One does it for websites — the other for the games your players actually open.
Comparison reflects Hotjar's web-focused product; Hotjar does not offer native mobile-app capture.
Frequently asked questions
How is IV Metrics different from Hotjar?
Hotjar is built for websites — it records browser sessions through the page DOM and won’t run inside a native mobile game. IV Metrics is built for games: it drops into your Unity, iOS, Android or Amazon build and records the actual rendered gameplay as video, with touch overlays and device metrics.
Can I use Hotjar for a mobile game?
Hotjar focuses on web pages and web apps, so it isn’t designed to capture a native game’s rendered frames. For mobile games you need a game-native tool like IV Metrics that records the game window directly.
Does IV Metrics affect game performance?
No. Video quality scales dynamically per device, and IV Metrics profiles over 11,000 device models to decide when not to record — so phones that can’t spare the headroom are left alone. It’s been tested on budget devices under 1.5GB of RAM with zero measurable impact on gameplay.
Which platforms and engines does it support?
One lightweight SDK covers iOS, Android, Amazon and Unity out of the box. It records the actual rendered game window rather than reconstructing your UI, so engine-rendered gameplay is captured as real video.
Does IV Metrics collect personal data?
No. Only the game window is captured — no system UI, no notifications, and no IP addresses, device identifiers or fingerprinting. It’s built with GDPR and COPPA in mind, so there are no consent banners to manage.
What exactly does it capture?
Real gameplay video with player taps and swipes drawn on top, plus device metrics like FPS, RAM and model alongside the footage. You can record invisibly in the background or trigger capture from any in-game event, such as StartLevel5.
Is it free to start?
Yes. You can sign up and start recording on the free plan with one lightweight SDK — no credit card required.