What is average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU)?
What is average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU)?
Average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) is a KPI that tells you how much revenue each active user, on average, is spending a day on your app.
How to calculate ARPDAU
To calculate ARPDAU, divide your total revenue for a given day by the number of users who were active that day.
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Daily revenue includes any earnings from in-app purchases (IAPs), ads, subscriptions, or other monetization sources. Daily active users (DAU) refers to the number of unique users who opened and interacted with your app within a 24-hour period.
For example, if your app made $1,200 and 1,000 users were active, your ARPDAU would be $1.20.
You can also calculate ARPDAU by revenue stream, for example, IAP ARPDAU or ad ARPDAU, to better understand how different monetization models perform.
Why ARPDAU is important
ARPDAU is a highly effective way to measure daily monetization performance in real time. Because it isolates revenue from users who are actively engaging with your app each day, it provides a clear view into how product changes, marketing campaigns, and in-app events are influencing user spend.
For teams running live-ops or monetizing through ads, IAPs, or subscriptions, ARPDAU acts as a daily feedback loop. It can reveal the impact of a limited-time offer, pricing experiment, or rewarded ad format the same day it goes live, helping you iterate faster and refine your monetization mix.
For example, if you launch a new in-app bundle and see a 20% increase in ARPDAU, that’s a strong signal the offer resonates with users. Conversely, a dip might highlight friction in your UX or pricing model.
While ARPDAU offers a highly responsive view of monetization, it’s best used alongside broader metrics like ARPU and lifetime value (LTV). ARPU provides insight into revenue trends over time and includes all users, while LTV captures the full value of a user throughout their lifecycle. Together, these metrics help build a complete picture of both short-term performance and long-term growth.
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It’s also worth noting that ARPDAU can be sensitive to short-term fluctuations, such as weekends, holidays, or sudden spikes in new users. Since new users typically take time to convert, a large influx may temporarily lower your ARPDAU, even if your monetization strategy is strong overall. That’s why it’s important to interpret ARPDAU trends in context and as part of a wider measurement framework.
What is a good ARPDAU?
There’s no universal benchmark for ARPDAU as it varies widely depending on your app’s vertical, monetization model, and user base. iOS users generally produce higher ARPDAU than Android users, and markets like North America, Japan, and Western Europe tend to show stronger per-user revenue. Ultimately, what matters most is how your ARPDAU is trending over time, and whether it aligns with your user acquisition (UA), retention, and monetization goals.
How to improve ARPDAU
Here are five proven strategies to improve ARPDAU without negatively impacting user experience or retention:
- Optimize your monetization mix: Balance in-app purchases, ads, and subscriptions based on user behavior. Offer small IAPs that complement gameplay, introduce rewarded ads for optional boosts, or test lower-friction subscription trials.
- Segment and target your users: Use cohort analysis to identify high-value users, frequent spenders, or churn risks. Deliver tailored offers, pricing, or in-app experiences that align with each group’s behavior and preferences.
- Test pricing and user flows: Run A/B tests on onboarding, pricing tiers, or in-app bundles. Track changes in ARPDAU to quickly evaluate what resonates with different audiences.
- Increase engagement: Daily sessions, feature interaction, and time spent in-app all open more monetization opportunities. Invest in features that build habits, encourage progression, or reward consistent use.
- Re-engage dormant users: Use push notifications, email, or retargeting ads to bring users back, especially around special events or promotions. A reactivated user can drive meaningful revenue in a short window.
ARPDAU vs. ARPU vs. ARPPU
These three monetization metrics sound similar but serve different purposes:
Use ARPDAU when you want to measure short-term performance. It’s ideal for monitoring the immediate impact of changes like pricing experiments, campaigns, or feature releases, offering real-time insight into daily revenue trends.
ARPU is better suited for measuring monetization over time. It gives you a broader view by averaging revenue across all users, active or not, within a set time frame. This makes it useful for comparing user cohorts, acquisition channels, or long-term retention strategies.
ARPPU, on the other hand, focuses only on paying users. It helps you understand how much revenue your spenders are generating on average and is especially valuable for evaluating the depth of in-app purchases or the behavior of high-value users.
For example, if your app has a high ARPDAU but low ARPPU, it may suggest that your revenue is coming largely from ads rather than purchases. If the reverse is true, low ARPDAU but high ARPPU, it could mean you’re monetizing through a smaller group of dedicated spenders.
Measuring ARPDAU with Adjust
ARPDAU can be monitored in Datascape, which is part of Adjust's Analyze pillar and designed to help teams measure, explore, and compare performance metrics across their app portfolio. Within Datascape, you can view ARPDAU by revenue type—such as in-app purchases, ad revenue, or total revenue—and segment results by platform, date range, or user cohort.
This daily-level visibility helps product and marketing teams identify shifts in monetization, validate the impact of feature releases or pricing tests, and monitor how engaged users contribute to revenue over time. ARPDAU can also be used alongside retention and engagement metrics to understand how user behavior influences short-term revenue performance.
By centralizing this data in one place, Adjust enables faster, more informed decision-making across monetization and growth strategies.
Curious how Adjust’s measurement and analytics solutions can grow your app business? Request a demo and speak to an expert.
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