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Konstantin Khalyushev
ENRUESPT

Retention

6-month subscription retention

Of paid subscriptions started, the share still active six months later.

Denominator is paid subscriptions, not installs. Everyone in this cohort has already paid, so it cannot be compared with an install-cohort figure.

Denominator
paid subscriptions
Cohort
a subscription cohort
Time horizon
6 months
Sources
1
Observations
6

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Can these be compared?

Not directly comparable

Only one source in this dataset publishes this metric for this segment. That is a single reading, not a consensus.

These observations cannot be combined into one figure, so they are shown separately. Different billing periods (weekly vs monthly). For retention this is disqualifying, because surviving a fixed span costs a different number of renewal decisions on each plan: roughly 52 on a weekly plan, 12 on a monthly one, 1 on an annual one.

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026

Published 2026-03-19 · 6 observations

Sample
Over 115,000 apps using RevenueCat for in-app subscription management, covering more than $16 billion in revenue and more than a billion transactions. Apps must have active subscription revenue and meet a minimum install or revenue threshold.
How it is aggregated
App-level metrics aggregated across apps and reported as medians and quartiles (Q1/P25, median/P50, Q3/P75, P90). Each app is a data point regardless of size.
Measurement period
Target time frame 2025; older data used where a metric needs it (e.g. third annual renewal rates).
Denominator
paid subscriptions

5%–15%

Median

  • Weekly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
Comparability
Range spans categories, not the distribution within a category.
As published
“Weekly: median 5-15%, top quartile 7-10%.”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

14%–26%

Median

  • Monthly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
As published
“Monthly: median 14-26%, top quartile 30-50%.”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

40%

Median

  • Business
  • Monthly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
As published
“Business category leads (26% weekly/40% monthly); Social & Lifestyle lags (11%/24%).”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

26%

Median

  • Business
  • Weekly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
As published
“Business category leads (26% weekly/40% monthly); Social & Lifestyle lags (11%/24%).”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

24%

Median

  • Social & Lifestyle
  • Monthly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
As published
“Business category leads (26% weekly/40% monthly); Social & Lifestyle lags (11%/24%).”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

11%

Median

  • Social & Lifestyle
  • Weekly

Evidence Sample, statistic and metric definition all stated by the publisher.

Methodology
Subscription-level, not user-level: a subscription is retained once it has accumulated enough paid renewals to cover the elapsed time.
As published
“Business category leads (26% weekly/40% monthly); Social & Lifestyle lags (11%/24%).”

RevenueCat — State of Subscription Apps 2026Published 2026-03-19Retention · Retention of weekly and monthly plans 6 months in by category

Pairwise comparability

The verdict below is produced by a fixed set of rules, not a model. It looks at the metric definition, the denominator, the cohort, the statistic, the segment, the dataset and the publication dates, and reports every reason it found.

RevenueCat 2026 5%–15%RevenueCat 2026 26%

Roughly comparable

The same thing is being measured, but at least one condition differs. Read the direction, not the gap.

  • Different category scope: not broken out vs Business. An all-categories figure is not a substitute for the category you are in.

RevenueCat 2026 5%–15%RevenueCat 2026 14%–26%

Not directly comparable

These measure different quantities. Differencing them produces a number that means nothing.

  • Different billing periods (weekly vs monthly). For retention this is disqualifying, because surviving a fixed span costs a different number of renewal decisions on each plan: roughly 52 on a weekly plan, 12 on a monthly one, 1 on an annual one.

RevenueCat 2026 5%–15%RevenueCat 2026 11%

Roughly comparable

The same thing is being measured, but at least one condition differs. Read the direction, not the gap.

  • Different category scope: not broken out vs Social & Lifestyle. An all-categories figure is not a substitute for the category you are in.

RevenueCat 2026 14%–26%RevenueCat 2026 26%

Not directly comparable

These measure different quantities. Differencing them produces a number that means nothing.

  • Different billing periods (monthly vs weekly). For retention this is disqualifying, because surviving a fixed span costs a different number of renewal decisions on each plan: roughly 52 on a weekly plan, 12 on a monthly one, 1 on an annual one.

RevenueCat 2026 40%RevenueCat 2026 24%

Roughly comparable

The same thing is being measured, but at least one condition differs. Read the direction, not the gap.

  • Different category scope: Business vs Social & Lifestyle. An all-categories figure is not a substitute for the category you are in.

Related metrics

  • Day 30 install retention

    Of everyone who installed, the share still opening the app on day 30. This counts app opens, not payments — it is not subscriber retention.

RetentionCompare your productMethodology and sourcesAll benchmarks