Subscription retention and player retention need different columns

RevenueCat defines retention at subscription level; GameAnalytics documents exact-day player retention. The shared word does not make the two measures interchangeable. RevenueCat methodology; GameAnalytics definitions.

Match the business question to the event

A subscription can remain paid while a player stops opening the game. A player can continue playing while no longer holding a subscription. These possibilities mean a subscription-based game needs separate views of commercial survival and product engagement.

Our recommendation is to build the bridge using your own authorised data: subscription state, activity state and acquisition cohort at a defined observation date. Keep the analysis at an appropriate privacy-preserving level. The result can reveal which questions to investigate without assuming that one metric is a substitute for the other.

Avoid an accidental retention target

Do not copy a subscription-survival percentage into a day-seven player-retention target. Check the unit being counted, the start event, elapsed period, plan duration and treatment of renewals. A long billing term can keep a subscription commercially active through periods without play.

The report is useful for benchmarking a subscription business with comparable eligibility and definitions. It is less useful as a direct target for a free-to-play game whose revenue mainly comes from advertising or one-off purchases. The attached card keeps the two populations visible so a planning slide cannot compress them into a single, misleading retention number.

Inspect the evidence

Download the source-population and comparability card. The extraction separates documented facts from our analysis and unknowns.

Further reading in the existing archive: Retention is a UA metric; The retention curve you should be showing your creative team. These links provide background; this check does not independently verify their full contents.