What share of daily active users pays?
№ 135 · Paying user share
Definition
MetricShare of active users who make a purchase
Unit% of active users paying; % of installs converting to a first purchase within 30 days
Percent of DAU that has ever paid. F2P games typically 2-6%. Watch for movement after monetization changes. Build by counting users with at least one purchase divided by total active users. Example: 4.2% paying users Q1, 5.1% Q4 (after BattlePass launch).
- DAU
- Daily active users. Unique users performing a qualifying action in a day.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| under 1.5% of installs convert within 30 days; under 1% of monthly actives pay | 3% to 5% of installs convert within 30 days; 1.5% to 2.5% of monthly actives pay | 6% to 9% of installs convert to a first purchase within 30 days; 3% or more of monthly actives pay |
Mobile free-to-play, global, 2023 to Q1 2026. The primary definition is install-to-first-purchase conversion inside a 30-day window, which is what AppsFlyer and Mistplay publish. Share of daily active users paying on a single day is a different and much smaller number, typically a fifth to a tenth of the 30-day install conversion rate. · Three definitions circulate and they are not interchangeable, which accounts for most of the apparent disagreement between sources. Install-to-payer within 30 days runs 3% to 5% for games. Share of monthly actives paying runs near 2%. Share of daily actives paying on a single day runs well under 1%. Adjust's payer rate of about 0.8% and Swrve's 2.3% monthly figure are measuring the second and third of these, not the first. The Swrve number is from 2016 and is included only for direction of travel. Regional spread is wide: AppsFlyer puts first-purchase conversion at 11.14% in North America against 6.51% in LATAM, so an install mix change alone will move this metric several points.
| Category | Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puzzle | not published as a percentile | 7.4% of players are spenders by day 30 (US, 2023 to 2024) | not published as a percentile |
| RPG | not published as a percentile | 5.0% of players are spenders by day 30 (US, 2023 to 2024) | not published as a percentile |
| Casino | not published as a percentile | 4.95% of installs convert to a first purchase within 30 days, 3.01% repeat | not published as a percentile |
| Midcore | not published as a percentile | first-to-repeat payer ratio of 1.76x, so roughly 57% of first payers buy again inside 30 days | not published as a percentile |
| Casual | not published as a percentile | first-to-repeat payer ratio of 1.89x, so roughly 53% of first payers buy again inside 30 days | not published as a percentile |
When it looks bad
Payer share holds flat on the headline while the first-time payer line falls and the repeat payer line rises, so the chart is being propped up by an ageing cohort of existing spenders rather than by new conversions.
Payer share steady at 2.8% of monthly actives while first-time payers fall from 1.9% to 1.1% of installs and the median tenure of an active payer rises from 34 to 71 days.
What to do about it
- Separate first-time payer rate from repeat payer rate and track both as their own series. The first-to-repeat ratio is 1.65x in casino, 1.76x in midcore and 1.89x in casual (AppsFlyer), so roughly half of first payers buy again inside 30 days, and a stable blended payer share with a falling first-payer line is a top-of-funnel problem wearing a monetisation mask.
- Price the entry offer inside the band where first purchases actually happen, which sits in the low single dollars. An entry SKU priced above that band filters out the marginal converter before the offer is ever evaluated, and no amount of placement work recovers them.
- Run the conversion push inside the first 72 hours rather than at a level gate deeper in the game. Average time to first purchase is just over two days post install, 1.6 days in puzzle and 1.7 in RPG (Mistplay and AppsFlyer, US data).
- Set regional payer-share targets instead of one global number. First-purchase conversion runs 11.14% in North America against 6.51% in LATAM (AppsFlyer), so a LATAM-weighted install mix will miss a global target for reasons that have nothing to do with the offer or the product.
Sources
- AppsFlyer Casino games convert 4.95% of new installs into paying users within 30 days with 3.01% making multiple purchases. First-to-repeat payer ratio is 1.65x casino, 1.76x midcore, 1.89x casual. First-purchase conversion reaches 11.14% in North America against 6.51% in LATAM. Non-gaming apps convert 9.84%. appsflyer.com ↗
- Mistplay and AppsFlyer Puzzle games reach a 7.4% share of spenders by day 30 and RPG titles 5%, with puzzle leading on both payer count at day 30 and time to first purchase. business.mistplay.com ↗
- AppsFlyer Fewer than 5% of users make any purchase, and more than 70% of those who do buy again. Among buyers, transactions occur daily through the first 10 days post install. appsflyer.com ↗
- Moloco Install-to-payer conversion rates rose 6% among top advertisers in 2024 and the number of paying iOS users grew 13%, while overall install volume was flat. moloco.com ↗
- GameAnalytics (via AIThority) Top-performing role playing and strategy games showed conversion rates and ARPDAU five to seven times the all-genre standard, and median midcore ARPPU three to five times casual. Dated 2019 and included only for the genre ordering, not the levels. aithority.com ↗
- Adjust (via Gitnux compilation) About 0.8% of mobile game users make an in-app purchase in aggregate, a base-wide rather than install-cohort measure. gitnux.org ↗
- Swrve (via Game Developer) 2.3% of free-to-play mobile game players spent money in the measured month, up from 1.5% a year earlier. Dated 2016 and included for trend only. gamedeveloper.com ↗
- AppMagic In hybridcasual titles the share of App Store paying users who had spent more than $100 by day 90 rose from 22% in 2024 to 32% in 2025, so payer quality is deepening even where payer share is flat. gamedevreports.substack.com ↗
- MAF Android shows higher conversion rates for mobile games while iOS delivers higher retention and higher spend, so payer share and payer value move in opposite directions by platform. maf.ad ↗
- Sensor Tower Gaming IAP revenue reached roughly $82 billion in 2025 on flat downloads, and the top 1% of apps generated 92.2% of all IAP revenue, so payer share benchmarks drawn from the whole market describe a very uneven population. sensortower.com ↗