User Retention Rates for Non-Gaming Apps – the hows, whys and whats

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What user retention rates like for non-gaming apps in 2015? Gaming apps are a lot easier to understand – the general concept of user retention is mostly the same across all gaming apps and it’s a lot easier to understand how to improve such rates. When it comes to non-gaming apps, the subject of user retention is a lot broader.

We’ll be talking a little about user retention rates for non-gaming apps in 2015 below. Instead of focusing on different categories of apps, we’ll be taking a look at what networks are boasting great user retention rates for non-gaming apps.

Retention

Highest Retention Rates – Android

When it comes to Android, Twitter has been sitting at the top spot in 2015 for user retention rates. If we just focus on retention rates for day 1, day 7 and day 30 of a mobile application, Twitter takes 25% better retention rates than the second-place competitor for Android, which is Google Play. In third place is CheetahMobile, a Chinese ad network is proving to show just how big the Chinese app industry is becoming.

Fourth place for user retention rates on Android is Facebook, which makes a lot of sense considering the huge scale Facebook has when it comes to their own advertising opportunities.

Highest Retention Rates – iOS

What about if we focus on iOS? Unsurprisingly, three of the top Android platforms providing the highest retention rates are also doing the same on iOS. The difference, however, is that some of the positions have changed around. In the first place, Google AdWords sits on iOS with the best user retention rates. This has been credited largely down to the power Google AdWords can have on Google searches across platforms. In second place is Twitter, which, whilst still having a very decent retention rate, it still doesn’t reach the scale of Twitter on Android.

Third place for the highest user retention rates on iOS is Facebook, which seems to have more of an impact on iOS than it does on Android, albeit very small.

Facebook’s Unrivaled Reach

Taking data from non-gaming apps on both iOS and Android, it’s clear to see that Facebook’s reach is phenomenal across the board. Whilst Facebook may not boast the highest user retention, its rates still are pretty high, and it does something else a lot better than any other platform. Thanks to the huge unrivalled reach that Facebook has across the globe, its app install rates are a lot higher than any other platform at this point in time. User retention rates per 1,000 users are lower, but you’ll be able to pick up many more installs on Facebook, essentially making Facebook the clear cut choice for retaining a larger number of app users in the long term.

Thanks go to AppsFlyer for providing the study to back up the data in this article. It is clear that whilst the platforms that fit into the top 10 spots for user retention rates on both iOS and Android do include a variety of ad networks, recurring successes are seen by three of the biggest players on the internet today; Facebook, Google and Twitter.

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Author: Richard Buettner
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