Tracking app success goes beyond just counting downloads. If you really want to understand how well your app or game is performing, you need to look deeper—at user engagement. One of the best ways to measure this is through monthly active users.
MAU is a powerful metric that reveals whether people find real value in your mobile app or game. Knowing your monthly active users can help you pinpoint strengths, identify weaknesses, and plan for growth.
It’s crucial if you want long-term success.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly what monthly active users mean, why they’re especially important in mobile games and apps, and how you can use this data to drive better decisions and stronger results.
What is MAU?
MAU stands for monthly active users. It refers to the number of unique users who engage with your app or game at least once in a 30-day period.
This makes monthly active users one of the most widely tracked engagement metrics in mobile marketing because it gives you a clear snapshot of active interest rather than just passive downloads.
Why It Matters for Mobile Apps and Games
For mobile apps and games, measuring monthly active users goes beyond simply showing popularity. It provides crucial insights into how consistently users return to your app, indicating real and ongoing interest.
High monthly active user numbers often signal strong retention and potential for monetization, as engaged users are more likely to spend money, watch ads, or subscribe.
Tracking MAU helps you assess your app’s health and longevity. It’s a reliable indicator for identifying if your product truly resonates with users, guiding improvements in user experience, monetization strategies, and overall app growth.
MAU vs DAU vs WAU – What’s the Difference?
When discussing engagement metrics for mobile apps and games, you’ll frequently hear about daily active users (DAU) and weekly active users (WAU), alongside monthly active users (MAU).
While these metrics are closely related, each one offers a distinct view into user behavior.
Breaking Down the Metrics
Daily Active Users (DAU) measures how many unique users interact with your app within a single 24-hour period. DAU helps you gauge daily habits and routine engagement—essential for apps that thrive on daily use like social media, messaging, or casual games.
Weekly Active Users (WAU) captures unique users who engage with your app at least once during a 7-day period. WAU is ideal if your app naturally aligns with weekly use cycles, such as productivity apps or certain types of lifestyle apps.
Monthly Active Users (MAU), as you already know, tracks unique user engagement across an entire 30-day window. This broader metric is ideal for apps and games that aren’t necessarily used daily but still maintain consistent engagement over longer periods.
When to Use Each Metric
- Use DAU if your app or game heavily depends on daily interaction and short sessions. It’s especially valuable for hyper-casual games or social apps.
- Opt for WAU if your app serves specific needs on a weekly basis, such as planning apps, habit trackers, or fitness apps.
- Track MAU to get a clear picture of overall engagement, retention, and user base stability. MAU works particularly well for midcore games, subscription-based apps, and services where users interact regularly but not necessarily daily.
Why Monthly Active Users is a Strong KPI to Track
When measuring the success of mobile apps and games, monthly active users stands out as one of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs). Here’s why it’s essential to track and analyze MAU:
Reflects True User Engagement
Unlike download numbers, monthly active users show actual interaction and ongoing interest.
It tells you if users genuinely find your app valuable enough to return regularly.
For example, having one million downloads might look impressive, but if only a small fraction become monthly active users, it indicates a significant issue with retention or app experience.
Direct Connection to Revenue
Higher MAU numbers typically translate to greater revenue potential. Whether your app generates income through ads, subscriptions, or in-app purchases, consistent user engagement is critical for monetization.
Regularly tracking monthly active users can help you forecast potential earnings and identify opportunities to optimize monetization strategies.
Reliable Benchmark for Growth
Tracking monthly active users month-over-month allows you to clearly see trends in your app’s growth and performance. It helps you understand if your user acquisition efforts, product updates, or marketing campaigns are genuinely effective.
For example, a steady rise in MAU signals your app is attracting new users and retaining current ones, pointing to strong overall health.
How to Calculate Monthly Active Users Properly
Accurately calculating your monthly active users is crucial. If your data isn’t precise, your analysis could lead to misguided decisions.
Here’s how you do it right:
Basic MAU Formula
The formula to calculate MAU is straightforward:
Monthly Active Users = Total number of unique users who interacted with your app within a 30-day period
This interaction can be anything from opening the app, starting a session, or performing specific actions within the app.
Tips for Accurate MAU Calculation
To ensure accuracy, keep these best practices in mind:
- Identify Unique Users Clearly:
Always use a unique identifier such as user IDs or device IDs to avoid counting the same user multiple times. - Filter Out Irrelevant Data:
Exclude interactions from bots, automated scripts, test accounts, and internal teams. This ensures you’re only tracking genuine user engagement. - Define “Active” Consistently:
Clearly define what qualifies as an “active” interaction. Does it mean just opening the app, or should it include specific in-app actions? Be consistent month-to-month to keep comparisons valid.
Recommended Analytics Tools to Track Monthly Active Users
To simplify and streamline MAU tracking, consider using analytics platforms such as:
- Google Analytics 4: Ideal for cross-platform tracking, GA4 provides detailed insights into user behavior, engagement rates, and retention metrics.
- Firebase Analytics: Especially popular among mobile apps and games, Firebase offers robust tools for measuring user interactions, retention, and engagement patterns.
- Mixpanel: Known for its deep-dive capabilities, Mixpanel allows you to define and track custom user events and interactions precisely.
- Amplitude: Particularly strong at tracking user journeys and behaviors, Amplitude helps you pinpoint exactly how users engage with your app, making it easy to measure monthly active users and retention accurately.
Using these analytics tools ensures your MAU data is accurate, accessible, and actionable.
Now that you have accurate monthly active user data, let’s explore exactly how this metric complements others like daily active users (DAU) to unlock deeper insights.
MAU + DAU: Why You Should Track Both
Measuring monthly active users alone provides valuable insights, but pairing it with daily active users (DAU) can unlock even deeper understandings about your app or game’s engagement.
Understanding User Stickiness
Combining these two metrics gives you what’s known as the stickiness ratio:
Stickiness Ratio = Daily Active Users ÷ Monthly Active Users
This ratio shows how frequently your users return.
A high stickiness ratio means a significant portion of your monthly users engage with your app daily—a strong indicator of habit formation and user satisfaction.
For instance, if your game has 500,000 daily active users and 2 million monthly active users, your stickiness ratio is 25%, indicating that about a quarter of your monthly audience engages daily—a great sign for consistent retention.
Layered Insights for Better Decision-Making
Tracking monthly and daily active users together helps identify both broad engagement patterns and daily user habits.
- Monthly active users tell you the scale and reach of your app or game.
- Daily active users indicate routine and frequent engagement.
Together, these metrics reveal whether you have a loyal user base or if users are losing interest quickly after installation. This combined view helps you pinpoint where you should focus —whether it’s improving user experience, increasing retention, or fine-tuning monetization strategies.
Next, we’ll dive into how monthly active users fit within the bigger picture of mobile app metrics and how you can leverage this data to fuel comprehensive growth strategies.
How MAU Fits Into a Full Mobile Metrics Stack
Monthly active users is undoubtedly a valuable metric—but it doesn’t exist in isolation. To get the most meaningful insights, you should use it alongside other crucial metrics in your mobile analytics stack.
The Importance of Context
When you’re tracking MAU, it’s essential to also keep an eye on these complementary metrics:
- Retention Rates (D1, D7, D30):
Retention rates measure how many users continue engaging with your app after installation. High monthly active users combined with strong retention indicate users find ongoing value in your product. - Lifetime Value (LTV):
LTV calculates how much revenue an average user generates over time. Pairing MAU with LTV helps you understand if active users actually convert into revenue-generating users. - Cost Per Install (CPI) / Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):
CPI and CAC show how much you’re paying to acquire each user. Comparing these costs against MAU helps evaluate the effectiveness of your user acquisition campaigns. - Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):
ROAS measures your advertising profitability. Strong monthly active user numbers combined with high ROAS mean you’re successfully acquiring users who engage consistently and monetize well.
Seeing the Bigger Picture
By incorporating MAU into this broader analytics framework, you can clearly see your app’s strengths and weaknesses.
You gain insight into the full user journey—from first impression and installation to retention, engagement, and ultimately monetization.
For instance, you might find your app has a high number of monthly active users but low monetization rates. This insight would signal the need to optimize your monetization strategies or improve your onboarding and user experience.
In the following section, you’ll discover benchmarks for what constitutes a good monthly active user count across various app and game categories, complete with real-world examples to guide your growth.
What’s Considered a “Good” MAU?
Not every app or game needs tens of millions of monthly active users to be considered successful.
What counts as a “good” MAU really depends on your app’s category, audience, and goals.
Industry Benchmarks by Category
Here’s a general breakdown of what’s considered strong monthly active user performance across different segments:
Casual mobile games
For casual games, a monthly active user count between 100,000 and 1 million is considered solid. These games tend to focus on low-friction fun, so high install volume with decent engagement is the norm.
Midcore and core games
Games with deeper gameplay loops, like shooters, RPGs, or strategy games, usually aim higher. A strong MAU range is between 500,000 and 5 million.
These titles benefit from loyal player bases and higher monetization per user.
Top social or utility apps
Apps with massive user bases—think communication tools, content platforms, or productivity apps—often exceed 10 million monthly active users. At this level, scale is everything, and these apps usually depend on frequent engagement and network effects.
But MAU Isn’t Everything
While MAU is a useful benchmark, it only tells part of the story. Growth trends, daily engagement (stickiness), retention, and lifetime value (LTV) often paint a clearer picture of whether your app is truly succeeding.
An app with 300,000 highly engaged users that return daily and monetize well might outperform one with 2 million monthly users who bounce after one session.
It’s not just about how many people show up—it’s about how often they return and what they do when they’re there.
MAU Benchmarks from Top Mobile Apps and Games
Now that you’ve seen what a strong monthly active user count looks like across different app categories, it’s helpful to dig into specific benchmarks.
These numbers provide a reference point for evaluating your own app or game’s performance and spotting potential growth opportunities.
Mobile Game MAU Benchmarks
If you’re in mobile gaming, here’s how top titles stack up:
- Roblox: Around 130 million MAU, showing long-term dominance through community-driven content and regular platform updates.
- PUBG Mobile: Maintains roughly 30 million MAU, supported by competitive features, seasonal content drops, and global tournaments.
- Brawl Stars: At 25 million MAU, it remains one of Supercell’s most consistent performers, thanks to fast-paced gameplay and regular balance updates.
- Among Us: With 20 million MAU, it shows how a strong core mechanic and viral social play can sustain engagement beyond an initial hype cycle.
- Minecraft Mobile: Roughly 8 million MAU, highlighting its loyal player base and consistent demand even years after launch.
These examples show that strong monthly active user numbers are often tied to consistent content updates, community features, and solid onboarding experiences.
Mobile App MAU Benchmarks
For non-gaming apps, the numbers scale much higher—but so do the stakes.
- TikTok: Leads with an enormous 1.3 billion MAU, thanks to its addictive short-form content and algorithmic personalization.
- ChatGPT (mobile app): At around 450 million MAU, it’s quickly becoming a go-to utility app for productivity and creative tasks.
- Twitter (X): Stands at 65 million MAU, showing resilience as a niche platform focused on real-time communication.
How to Use These Benchmarks
Use these monthly active user numbers not just to compare, but to ask smarter questions:
- Are we growing month-over-month like these apps?
- What engagement strategies do they use that we could test?
- Where do we fall short in retention or re-engagement?
You can also link these examples to your own internal MAU tracking articles to give readers even more context.
How to Increase Monthly Active Users
If you want to increase monthly active users, it’s not just about getting more downloads—it’s about giving users a reason to come back consistently.
Here are proven ways to increase MAU and build long-term engagement.
Improve Onboarding to Reduce Early Drop-Off
Your onboarding experience sets the tone.
A confusing or slow start leads to early churn, which hurts your MAU.
Focus on making onboarding fast, intuitive, and helpful. Show value early—ideally in the first 30 seconds.
Send Smart Push Notifications
Well-timed and personalized push notifications can bring users back. Use behavioral data to send reminders about unfinished tasks, new content, or limited-time offers. Just avoid spamming—irrelevant messages will do more harm than good.
Launch Regular Content Updates and Live Events
New content keeps your app or game feeling fresh. Add new features, limited-time game modes, challenges, or seasonal events to give users a reason to return.
In mobile games especially, live events are one of the most effective ways to boost short-term and long-term MAU.
Build Community Features
Adding social elements—like chat, friend lists, or co-op features—encourages users to stick around. When users feel connected to others, they’re more likely to stay active and come back regularly.
Use In-App Rewards and Streaks
Incentivize regular usage with rewards, login streaks, or milestone bonuses. These mechanics tap into habit-forming behavior and encourage users to return daily, which lifts your monthly active user count over time.
Optimize for Performance and UX
Slow load times, crashes, or bad UI can ruin the experience and push users away. Continuously test and optimize your app’s performance to make sure users can engage without friction.
Run Retargeting Campaigns
Use retargeting ads to bring back lapsed users.
These campaigns remind people about your app and highlight what’s new or improved. Even a small win here can lead to a noticeable boost in MAU.
Final Thoughts on Monthly Active Users
MAU is more than just a vanity metric—it’s one of the most effective ways to understand how well your mobile app or game is performing. It tells you if people are coming back, staying engaged, and finding enough value to return over time.
But MAU becomes even more powerful when combined with other key metrics like daily active users, retention, LTV, and ROAS. Together, these numbers give you a complete picture of your app’s health, helping you spot opportunities for growth and areas that need improvement.
At Udonis, we’ve helped hundreds of mobile apps and games scale their user base—not just by driving installs, but by attracting users who stick around. Because long-term success doesn’t come from downloads alone. It comes from active, engaged users who keep coming back.
If you want to grow your monthly active users and build a stronger, more profitable app, it all starts with understanding the data—and acting on it.
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