App Retention: Day 1, 7 and 30 Benchmarks

What is a good app retention rate?

App retention is the share of people who install an app and come back to it after a set number of days. As a widely cited reference point, Adjust reports median app retention across all categories of 26% on day 1, 13% on day 7, and 7% on day 30. Games tracked by GameAnalytics show a much steeper curve: a median of about 22% on day 1, just under 4% on day 7, and under 1% on day 30. A good retention rate is one that beats the median for your category and platform, and keeps improving from one cohort to the next.

Below you will find what the published benchmarks actually say, where they come from and why they disagree. More usefully, you will see how to turn retention into a buying decision, so your install budget goes to the sources that bring people who stay.

How app retention is calculated

Retention is measured by cohort: a group of users who installed on the same day. For each later day, you count how many of them opened the app again.

Day N retention = users from the cohort active on day N / users who installed on day 0 x 100

Two details change the result, so check them before you compare numbers:

• What counts as a day. Some tools use calendar days. Adjust, for example, defines a day as a 24-hour period, measured from the install.
• Classic or rolling retention. Classic (or “N-day”) retention counts users who were active on exactly day N. Rolling (or “unbounded”) retention counts users active on day N or any day after it, which always gives a higher number.

App retention benchmarks from Adjust

Adjust, a mobile measurement company, published median retention rates across all the verticals it tracks in its April 2024 article “What makes a good app retention rate?”. These are the most widely quoted all-category figures:

Source: Adjust, “What makes a good app retention rate?”, April 16, 2024. Medians across all verticals.

The same article breaks day 1 retention down by category. Games and social apps led at 29%, health and fitness followed at 27%, fintech reached 22%, utility and entertainment sat at 21% and 20%, shopping and travel at 18% and 16%, and food and drink trailed at 13%.

By region, Adjust reported day 1 retention of 26% in APAC and LATAM, 24% in Europe and MENA, and 23% in North America. By day 30, APAC and Europe held 6%, LATAM and North America 5%, and MENA 4%.

Mobile game retention benchmarks from GameAnalytics

GameAnalytics, whose free analytics tool runs in a large number of mobile games, publishes yearly benchmarks by percentile. Its 2026 Mobile and PC Gaming Benchmarks report covers the 2025 calendar year and more than 16,000 mobile games with at least 1,000 monthly active users.

Source: GameAnalytics, 2026 Mobile and PC Gaming Benchmarks. The report notes that day 1, day 7, and day 30 retention all continued to decline in 2025.

By region, median day 1 retention was highest in Oceania at 25.63%, followed by North America at 23.28% and Europe at 22.20%, with Asia and Africa just under 19%. The report describes North America, Europe, and Oceania as consistently ahead on day 7 and day 30 as well.

Why retention benchmarks disagree

Adjust puts the all-category median at 7% on day 30, while GameAnalytics puts the median game under 1%. Games alone do not explain the gap, because games were among the leaders on day 1 in Adjust’s data. The two reports simply measure in different ways:

• Different samples. A measurement company sees the apps that use its attribution service, which tend to be apps that spend on marketing. A free analytics tool with a 1,000 MAU entry bar is likely to include many more small and new titles.
• Different definitions. Calendar days or 24-hour periods, classic or rolling retention, day 28 or day 30.
• Different years. GameAnalytics reports a downward trend, so a 2024 figure and a 2025 figure are not directly comparable.
• Medians hide the spread. In the GameAnalytics data, the top 10% of games keep about three times as many players on day 7 as the median game, 11% to 12% against just under 4%.

The practical rule: use a benchmark from the report closest to your category, platform, and markets, note its definition, and then compare yourself mainly with your own previous cohorts. Your trend is more useful than any industry median.

What do day 1, day 7, and day 30 retention tell you?

Day 1 is a verdict on the first session: onboarding, loading time, and whether the app delivers its promise quickly. When it is weak, look at the first few minutes, or at an ad that promised something the app does not do.

Day 7 tests the core loop. People come back in the second week because of progress, fresh content or a habit. A good day 1 followed by a weak day 7 means they liked the start but found nothing to return for.

Day 30 is where the money is. It drives lifetime value, subscriptions and the return on your acquisition spend, which is why it matters most when you decide what an install is worth to you. CAC vs CPA vs LTV shows how retention feeds into what a user is worth.

Retention by install source: cost per retained user

Your blended retention curve hides the comparison that saves money: how users from each source behave. Two sources with the same install price can bring very different people, and a cheaper install is not always a cheaper user. This is the part of retention you control as a buyer, even before you touch the app itself.

Cost per retained user = spend on the source / users from that source still active on day 7 (or day 30)

Rewarded installs deserve special care. When the task is only “install and open”, many users do exactly that and leave. Paying for a first goal inside the app, such as finishing the tutorial or reaching a level, filters for users who have seen what the app does. Incentivized traffic explained and What is CPE? cover how to design those goals, and What is CPI? explains the install-priced alternative.

How to measure retention by source

1. Give every source its own identifier. A tracking link from a mobile measurement partner, a Google Play referrer value, or an App Store Connect campaign link. What is an MMP? explains the options.
2. Where a source has no attribution integration, match users yourself. Sharklio has no MMP integration, so a task campaign can ask for the in-app username as proof. You can then tag those users in your own analytics and follow them as a cohort.
3. Compare cohorts of the same age. Day 30 numbers for last week’s installs do not exist yet. Wait for each cohort to mature before you judge it.
4. Watch sample size. 30 installs and a 20% day 7 rate is six people. Collect a few hundred installs per source before drawing conclusions.
5. Look for fraud signals. Installs that never return, clusters of identical devices, or installs that arrive seconds after the click. Ad fraud and bot traffic covers the patterns.

How to improve day 1, day 7, and day 30 retention

• Match the ad to the app. Users promised one thing and shown another leave in the first session.
• Shorten the path to the first success by removing sign-up walls and permission prompts that are not needed right away.
• Give people a reason to return tomorrow: daily rewards, streaks, saved progress, or content that updates.
• Use notifications with care. A useful reminder on day 2 helps; five a day drives uninstalls.
• Fix crashes and slow loads first. No retention tactic outperforms an app that works on the devices you target.
• Target where your app fits. Limit campaigns to the platforms, devices, and countries your app is built for. Set bids by country shows how to price each market separately.

Frequently asked questions