Retention Benchmarks: What Good D1, D7, and D30 Look Like

Ask a publisher or investor about your game and their first question will not be about your idea. It will be "what is your D1?" Here is the vocabulary, the honest benchmarks, and what actually moves each number.

The definitions

D1 retention: of the people who installed your game on a given day, the percentage who open it again the next day. D7 is the same measure a week later, D30 a month later. Together they draw the retention curve, and the shape of that curve is the health of your game.

What counts as good

Benchmarks vary by genre, so treat these as orientation, not law:

• D1: 40 percent is strong. Above 45 is excellent. Below 30 signals real first-session problems
• D7: 15 to 20 percent is solid. Above 20 is very good for casual titles
• D30: 6 to 10 percent is healthy. The best games in a genre hold more

Casual and puzzle games sit near the top of these ranges, mid-core lower but with much higher revenue per remaining player. Compare against your own genre only. And be suspicious of anyone claiming numbers wildly above these: universally, most installs never come back, even for hits.

What each number is really telling you

D1 is your first session. A weak D1 means confusion or boredom in the opening minutes: an unclear tutorial, a slow start, a difficulty wall in the first ten levels. It is a product problem, almost never a marketing problem.

D7 is your habit. Players returned a week in because something pulled them: progression that still feels rewarding, a streak they do not want to break, content they have not finished. Weak D7 with decent D1 means a fun game with nothing to come back for.

D30 is your business. Long term players are who actually monetize in free to play. If D30 holds at a healthy level, marketing spend can be recovered. If it does not, no CPI is cheap enough, because you are refilling a leaking bucket.

The order of operations

Fix retention left to right. A weak D1 makes every later number meaningless, since D7 can only retain the people D1 kept. Improve the first session, then the first week loop, then the long game. And measure before you spend: this is exactly what a soft launch is for. Buying installs before retention holds is the most common way founders convert marketing budget into nothing.

Retention is not one number to pass. It is the game's report card, issued daily, and it is the honest foundation every other decision stands on.