LTV: Lifetime value
The total revenue a player is expected to bring over time.
ARPDAU: Average revenue per daily active user.
Revenue earned per active user on a given day.
ARPDAU is average revenue per daily active user. It is calculated by dividing the revenue earned in a day by the number of daily active users that day, and it combines ad revenue and in-app purchases.
The formula
ARPDAU = revenue in a day / daily active users that day
For example, a game that earns 500 USD in a day with 10,000 daily active users has an ARPDAU of 0.05 USD.
What counts as revenue
Ad revenue and in-app purchases together. Teams often split ARPDAU by source, because the two respond to different changes.
How it is used
ARPDAU is a daily check on monetization. It moves when prices, ad placements or offers change, so it shows quickly whether a change worked. Read it with retention: ARPDAU is what an active player is worth per day, and retention is how many days they stay. Together they give an estimate of LTV, roughly ARPDAU multiplied by the average number of days a player stays active.
Limits
An average hides differences between spenders and non-spenders, and between countries. Segment it by country, platform and player cohort before you act on it.
Related terms.
Retention: Player retention
The share of players who return after a set number of days.
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