Downloads are vanity. Installs are vanity. Revenue feels real but hides the mechanics underneath. The metrics that actually tell you whether your subscription app is healthy are the ones almost nobody puts on their dashboard.
The core retention metrics
D1, D7, D30 retention. What percentage of users who downloaded the app on a given day came back after 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days? Industry averages: D1 around 25–26%, D7 around 10–12%, D30 around 5–7%. If you’re below these, retention is a problem. If you’re significantly above them, you’re doing something right worth doubling down on.
These numbers by themselves are averages — and averages lie. Always segment them by platform (iOS vs. Android), acquisition source, and user type.
Trial-to-paid conversion rate. Of users who start a trial, what percentage become paying subscribers? Global median for subscription apps is around 30–35%, but varies sharply by category. Travel apps convert at 43.5% trial-to-paid. Health & Fitness sits at 37.7%. Photo & Video comes in at 22.2%. Know your category benchmark before deciding whether your rate is good or bad.
Subscriber retention at 6 months. What percentage of paying subscribers are still subscribed 6 months after converting? Monthly subscribers: median 14–26% retention at 6 months, with top-quartile apps reaching 30–50%. Weekly subscribers retain at 3–6% (median) — significantly worse. If your business model relies on weekly billing, this gap is worth understanding deeply.
The metrics that reveal WHY retention is failing
Activation rate. What percentage of new users complete your activation event (the specific action that predicts D30 retention) in their first session? If this is low, your onboarding isn’t getting people to the value moment fast enough.
Time to first Aha Moment. How long does it take from app open to the first meaningful value experience? Track this as an average and a distribution. If the median is 4 minutes but 40% of users never get there, you have a funnel problem, not a content problem.
Day 0 trial cancellation rate. Of users who start a free trial, what percentage cancel on the same day they start? Industry data shows 55% of 3-day trial users and 39.8% of 7-day trial users cancel on Day 0. If your rate is higher than these, the paywall itself (not the trial) is the problem.
Involuntary churn rate. What percentage of your subscription cancellations were due to billing failures rather than active cancellations? On Google Play this runs at 31% of cancellations; on the App Store, 14%. If you’re not tracking this separately, you’re conflating billing failures with genuine dissatisfaction.
The cohort view
Single-number retention metrics miss the most important dimension: time. Cohort analysis shows you whether the subscribers you acquired in January retain differently from those you acquired in April. A product change, a new acquisition source, or a pricing update can dramatically shift retention — but the effect only becomes visible when you look at cohorts, not aggregates.
Track at minimum: monthly cohort retention (subscribers by month of acquisition, tracked over 12 months) and new subscriber retention by acquisition source.
One number that ties it together: RLTV
Revenue Lifetime Value in Year 1 (RLTV Y1) is the average revenue generated per paying user in their first 12 months. Global median across subscription apps is $23/payer. North America sits at $32.
This single number captures how well your pricing, retention, and trial strategy work together. If your RLTV is below the median for your geography, you have a retention and/or pricing problem worth diagnosing.