Proper API implementation can make or break your analytics strategy. Most analytics platforms offer SDKs, but raw API integration gives you more control and flexibility. The challenge is finding the balance between granular event tracking and performance overhead. Excessive API calls can increase latency by 50-100ms per session, which players notice. Best practice is batching events and sending them asynchronously during low-activity moments. Real-time dashboards are impressive but often unnecessary - most studios find that 15-30 minute data delays are perfectly acceptable and significantly reduce infrastructure costs. Security is crucial: anonymize user data before transmission and implement rate limiting to prevent abuse. One surprising finding: games with API-tracked error events fix bugs 40% faster than those relying only on user reports. Are you using REST or WebSocket connections? Have you built custom analytics endpoints or do you rely entirely on third-party platforms?