Analytics glossary
Plain-English definitions of the product & game analytics metrics that matter.
Active users
Active users counts the distinct people who use your product in a window — daily, weekly or monthly — the baseline measure of how many users you actually have.
ARPPU
ARPPU is the average revenue earned per paying user, isolating how much your actual spenders spend without diluting the number with non-payers.
ARPU
ARPU is the average revenue your product earns per active user over a period, the headline number for how well you monetize your whole audience.
Attribution
Attribution credits a conversion to the marketing touchpoints that led to it — first-touch, last-touch or linear — and is how user acquisition measures ROAS.
CAC
CAC is the average cost to acquire one new user, the spending side of growth that only makes sense when weighed against lifetime value.
Churn rate
Churn rate is the share of users who stop using your product over a period, the mirror image of retention and the leak every growth team fights.
Cohort analysis
Cohort analysis groups users by a shared starting point — usually acquisition date — and compares how each group behaves over time to reveal trends averages hide.
Conversion funnel
A conversion funnel models a multi-step user journey and measures how many people make it through each step, revealing exactly where users drop off.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the share of users who complete a target action, the universal measure of how well any step in your product turns intent into outcome.
DAU / MAU
DAU and MAU count daily and monthly active users; their ratio, DAU/MAU, is the standard stickiness metric for how often users return within a month.
K-factor
K-factor is the average number of new users each existing user brings in, the metric that tells you whether your product spreads on its own.
Lifetime value (LTV)
Lifetime value (LTV) is the total revenue a user generates over their entire relationship with your product, central to deciding what you can spend to acquire them.
Retention rate
Retention rate is the share of users who come back to your product after their first visit, measured at day 1, day 7, day 30 and beyond.
ROAS
ROAS is the revenue you earn back for every unit of ad spend, the core ratio for judging whether paid user acquisition is actually profitable.