Maybe those social games aren’t as addictive as we once though: a new survey from Playnomics has found that 85% of social gamers in the US do not return to a game after the first day’s play.

Equally alarmingly, the company’s Q3 2012 US Player Engagement Study found that almost 95% of all US players acquired in the first part of Q3 were inactive by the end of the quarter.

US females churn (i.e. give up on games) at slightly higher rates than US males but do tend to play longer before doing so, while “non-churners” play about twice as long on their ­first day as eventual churners.

They key, then, for Playnomics is that long-term retention of players is strongly tied to early engagement. Therefore it is imperative to focus on early retention campaigns.