Active users (DAU, WAU, MAU)
Active users is the count of distinct people who engage with your product within a time window. Reported as DAU (daily), WAU (weekly) and MAU (monthly), it is the most fundamental size metric a product has — the denominator under almost every other number, from ARPU to engagement rates. It answers the plain question: how many real people are actually using this?
How it is calculated
Each variant counts unique users active in its window:
DAU = distinct users active in a day, WAU = distinct users active in a 7-day window, MAU = distinct users active in a 30-day window
Two definitions decide everything here. First, what counts as “active” — any session, or a meaningful action like completing a level? A loose definition inflates the numbers; a strict one makes them honest. Second, deduplication must be correct: a user active on five days in a week is one WAU, not five. The ratio DAU/MAU, often called the stickiness ratio, captures how many monthly users show up on a typical day — a quick read on habit strength.
Why it matters
Active-user counts are the pulse of the product. DAU shows day-to-day health and reacts immediately to a bad release or a viral spike; MAU shows the broader reach investors and partners care about. Stickiness (DAU/MAU) reveals whether you have a daily habit or an occasional tool — a social game might run 50%+, a tax app a few percent, and both can be healthy. Crucially, active users only tells you breadth; pairing it with retention is what separates real, returning usage from a number propped up by constant acquisition.
In games and apps
Live games steer by DAU and ARPDAU together, watching how live-ops events lift daily actives and revenue at once. Teams segment active users by platform, country, channel and version to catch a regional or device-specific drop early. A common trap is celebrating rising MAU while DAU stalls — a sign you are acquiring users who don’t come back, which churn and retention will confirm.
In Keentics
Keentics computes DAU, WAU, MAU and the DAU/MAU stickiness ratio directly from your raw event stream, deduplicated per real user, so counts reflect actual activity rather than a sample. You define what “active” means in product terms, segment by any dimension, and line active users up against the retention curve that gives them meaning. See the game analytics feature for live dashboards and the DAU/MAU entry for the stickiness deep-dive.
Related: ARPPU · ARPU · Attribution · CAC