Direct-to-consumer subscriptions — apps, media, memberships. Trial-to-paid conversion and churn define the model; annual-plan retention is the LTV backbone. It is the best-benchmarked consumer space (RevenueCat tracks ~75k apps). Monetization is thin per user, so retention and ARPU compound everything.
Representative companies
- Netflix — streaming subscription at scale
- Spotify — freemium-to-paid audio
- Duolingo — freemium consumer app with strong streak retention
Primary metrics
The metrics that define health for a subscription business.
- DAU/MAU stickinessRetentionB2C: OK 25 / Good 40 / Great 50+ (a16z). B2B SaaS avg ~31% (Mixpanel). NOTE the 20%/50% rule is CONSUMER, not B2B.
- D1 / D7 / D30 retentionRetentionSocial: D1 50/60/70, D7 35/40/50, D30 20/25/30 (a16z). Games median: D1 ~22%, D7 ~3-4%, D28 <3% for 75%. The '40/20/10' heuristic is TOP-TIER, not median.
- Monthly subscription churnRetentionMid-life ~3-10%/mo; weekly plans churn brutally (<5% survive to m6).
- Annual churn / year-1 retentionRetention~72% of annual subs cancel within year 1 (worse than ~56% in 2025); 1-yr retention ~27-28%.
- ARPURevenueMobile RPI varies (Health&Fitness D60 ~$0.66). Fintech neobank ~$45-80/yr (Chime ~$214, Nubank ~$102, Wise ~$111) vs ~$350 traditional banks.
- RPI (revenue per install)RevenueHard paywall D60 RPI ~$3.09 vs freemium ~$0.38 (8x).
- Free-trial conversion (opt-in vs opt-out)RevenueNo-CC (opt-in): 4-6% good / 10-15% great. CC-required (opt-out): 25-35% / 50-60%.
Secondary metrics
Omega Point BenchmarksSubscription