What's a Good Mobile App Retention Rate?
Retention is one of the most fundamental metrics you need to now for a mobile product.
Retention is one of the most fundamental metrics you need to now for a mobile product. If I had to asses if someone has an interesting mobile product and if it's fundable by VC, I'd ask for just one number: What's your Day 30 retention?
Usually retention measured at Day 1, Day 3, Day 7, and Day 30 for mobile apps.
The uncomfortable truth is that Day 30 retention for most apps on the App Store is around 2%. This means that only 2 out of every 100 new user of your app will still use it 30 days after their first session.
AppsFlyer publishes retention benchmarks across different app categories and for most countries. For simplicity I'll show here the retention data for Utility & Productivity iOS apps in the US. Day 30 retention for a typical app is 1.6%.
Mobile App Retention Benchmarks
Can you still build a good business with such a retention rate. The answer is yes. If you know how to acquire users cheaply and how to monetize them early, then you can have a reasonable mobile app business.
What Does Great Retention Looks Like for Mobile?
Not all apps are created equal. Once in a while an app pops up that actually have virality, stickiness, and network effects. VCs are on the hunt for these apps and know what to look for. Specifically, what does the retention of something outstanding in mobile look like?
Here is the data from that A16Z, probably best VC fund out there, that provides a benchmark. This is how they know if you got "lightning in a bottle":
OK – d1 50%, d7 35%, d30 20%
Good – d1 60%, d7 40%, d30 25%
Great – d1 70%, d7 50%, d30 30%
So, if your app's day 30 retention in 20-30% range, you know where to look for funding.
And for reference, here is the retention data from some iconic companies in 2023 - Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter (X), and Snap. Day 30 is at 30% and up to 56% for instagram. Another important metric shown here is stickiness. I'll post about this one next time.
Sources used for this post:
AppsFlyer retention benchmarks: https://www.appsflyer.com/resources/reports/app-retention-benchmarks/#daily-app-retention-benchmarks