In various examples, durations of relatively high user activity within a gameplay session may be determined from user input events using a running user activity measurement. Once a duration is identified, it may be further analyzed to merge the duration with one or more other durations and/or to determine or predict whether the duration would be of sufficient interest for further action. A user interest score for an identified duration may be computed based on a set of the user input events that occur in the duration and used to determine and/or predict whether the duration would be of sufficient interest for further action. In some cases, an action may be performed based on determining the user interest score is greater than a statistical value that is computed from user interest scores of multiple identified durations.