What are the most important mobile game KPIs?

Retention on day 1, 7 and 30, monetisation per user such as ARPDAU and LTV, and acquisition efficiency such as CPI and ROAS. A game is healthy when player lifetime value comfortably exceeds the cost of acquiring a player.

What is a good day 1 retention for a mobile game?

It depends on genre. GameAnalytics' 2026 benchmarks put median day-one retention at about 22%, the top quarter of games just above 30% and the top 10% around 40%. Compare against your genre rather than one universal target.

How do you calculate ARPDAU?

Divide a day's total revenue from ads and in-app purchases by that day's daily active users.

How do you calculate LTV for a mobile game?

Track a cohort of players who installed on the same day, add up all the revenue they generate by a given point such as day 30 or 90, and divide by the number of installs in that cohort. Teams then project the curve forward.

What is the difference between ARPU and ARPPU?

ARPU is revenue divided by all active users in a period. ARPPU is purchase revenue divided only by the users who paid, so it shows how much payers spend.

Mobile Game KPIs Explained: Retention, ARPDAU and LTV

The short answer

The mobile game KPIs that matter most are retention (do players come back on day 1, 7 and 30), monetisation per user (ARPDAU and LTV), and acquisition efficiency (CPI and ROAS). A game is commercially healthy when the lifetime value of a player comfortably exceeds the cost of acquiring one. Everything else, from session length to payer conversion, helps explain why those numbers move.

The formulas

KPI	What it means	Formula
D1 / D7 / D30 retention	Share of a day's new players who return on day 1, 7 or 30	Players from the install cohort active on day N ÷ players in the cohort
DAU / MAU	Daily and monthly active users	Unique players active in a day or a month
Stickiness	How often monthly players play	DAU ÷ MAU
Session length / sessions per day	Engagement depth and habit	Total playtime ÷ sessions; sessions ÷ DAU
Payer conversion	Share of players who buy	Paying users ÷ active users
ARPDAU	Average revenue per daily active user	Daily revenue (ads + purchases) ÷ DAU
ARPPU	Average revenue per paying user	Purchase revenue ÷ paying users
ARPU	Average revenue per user over a period	Revenue ÷ active users in the period
LTV	Revenue a player generates over their lifetime	Cumulative revenue from a cohort ÷ installs in the cohort (by day 7, 30, 90...)
CPI	Cost per install	Ad spend ÷ installs from that spend
ROAS	Return on ad spend	Revenue from a cohort ÷ spend to acquire it (often by day 7 or 30)
Churn	Players who stop playing	1 − retention for the period

Retention comes first

Retention is measured in cohorts: everyone who installed on a given day is followed over time. Mixing cohorts, such as comparing today's actives with yesterday's installs, produces numbers that look better than reality. Day-one retention mostly reflects the first session and tutorial; day seven reflects whether there is a reason to return; day 30 reflects depth and long-term goals.

For context, GameAnalytics' 2026 benchmarks, covering more than 16,000 mobile games with at least 1,000 monthly users in 2025, report:

Metric	Median game	Top 25%	Top 10%
Day 1 retention	About 22%	Just above 30%	About 40%
Day 7 retention	Just under 4%	About 6–7%	About 11–12%
Day 30 retention	Under 1%

The same report put median daily playtime at about 12 minutes. GameAnalytics stresses that genres and business models produce different curves, and calls the familiar 40/20/10 rule (40% day 1, 20% day 7, 10% day 30) a reference point rather than a pass mark. Compare against your genre and your own previous builds.

Monetisation per user

ARPDAU tells you what an average day of play earns, combining ads and purchases. ARPPU and payer conversion separate how many people pay from how much they spend; a game can grow revenue by converting more players or by giving payers more worth buying. Count ad revenue properly: in ad-supported games it is often most of the income, and leaving it out makes LTV look far too low. Our guide to ads vs in-app purchases explains the trade-offs.

LTV, CPI and ROAS: the business test

Lifetime value is the number that decides how much you can spend on marketing. Teams usually track LTV at day 7, 30 and 90 for each cohort and project it forward. CPI is what installs cost in a given market and channel. ROAS compares a cohort's revenue with what it cost to acquire, often measured at day 7 and day 30. If projected LTV is below CPI, buying installs loses money, however good the game feels.

Instrument from the first build

GameAnalytics recommends a minimum event set of session start, tutorial complete, level complete, purchase and ad view. Add funnel steps for your first session, economy sources and sinks, and the points where players quit. Firebase's Google Analytics is free and widely used with Unity; whatever tool you use, agree event names before development so data stays comparable between builds.

Mistakes that mislead

Mixed cohorts and comparing players acquired from different channels as if they were the same.
Ignoring ad revenue in LTV and ARPDAU.
Over-reading small tests. A few percentage points on a few hundred players is noise.
Celebrating averages. A rise in ARPPU can hide a fall in payers.
Old benchmarks. Retention across the market has fallen in recent years; use current, genre-specific data.

We set up analytics, dashboards and LiveOps for the games we build and for live games that need it. See LiveOps outsourcing and our soft launch guide for how these numbers drive launch decisions.

Sources: GameAnalytics: 2026 mobile and PC benchmarks · GameAnalytics: how to think about retention · GameAnalytics: post-launch analytics · Firebase: Google Analytics. Checked October 14, 2026.

Mobile game KPIs, explained simply