Streak Creep: The perils of too much gamification

As I write this, my Duolingo streak has reached 566 days. My daily habit of using the app actually began almost two years ago, and my streak has continued to climb thanks to the app’s routine forgiveness of its users’ lapses. In that time, my French has improved: I’ve learned new vocabulary and refined my intuition for when to use the subjunctive. 

Even so, it has not always been clear to me why I’ve kept the streak alive. Accessible and inexpensive language-learning content can be hard to find, which can partially explain Duolingo’s draw. At the same time, it’s only one modality among many, and it doesn’t include long-form writing exercises or spoken conversation practice, which are my biggest weak spots. Even worse, I’ve noticed that I gravitate towards Duolingo over more challenging options, like speaking with a conversation partner or reading in French.

Other users have had similar experiences. A Reddit search for “Duolingo burnout” returns pages of users fed up with the app, feeling little motivation to continue learning. Many of these users start their posts with discussions of the lengths to which they’ve gone to maintain their streaks, implying that their original goals have taken a backseat.

Gamification is a powerful tool. It transforms tasks that might otherwise seem mundane or pointless into strategic objectives. It motivates users to return to a service again and again. As a result, an increasing number of companies have implemented streaks and other games into their products. But gamification has a dark side, too. It saps the intrinsic enjoyment of the underlying activity, turning it into something done mainly for the sake of a reward in the form of accumulating points or extending a streak. When that happens, it’s only a matter of time before users grow tired. Adding to a streak can feel powerful, but it’s ultimately empty when you lose interest in the activity itself.

In order to reap the benefits of gamification, it must be used judiciously. When done wrong, gamification can turn a chore that’s already meaningless into one that feels existentially depressing. Users question why they use a product even as they are unable to stop themselves from coming back to it. When done right, the element of play can bring out a user’s intrinsic motivation and remind them of their joy. By designing gamified experiences with sensitivity and moderation, companies can inspire action without triggering obligation.