Day-1 Retention
The percentage of users who return to your app on the day after their install date.
Definition
Day-1 retention (also called D1 retention) is the percentage of users from a given install cohort who open the app again on day 1 - the day after they installed. It's the most immediate signal of whether your first-session experience delivers enough value to bring users back. Apps with strong day-1 retention consistently have stronger day-7 and day-30 retention, because the same factors that bring users back on day 1 tend to create habits.
Day-1 retention
Day-1 retention = users who opened app on day 1 ÷ users who installed on day 0 × 100
Example: 280 returned on day 1 ÷ 1,000 installs on day 0 = 28% day-1 retention
→ In practice
"Day-1 retention went from 19% to 26% after we added the progress summary screen at the end of onboarding. Users needed to see what they'd accomplished before they closed the app."
Common questions
What is a useful day-1 retention benchmark?
Compare equivalent internal cohorts using the same return definition. Generic category ranges often use different attribution rules and windows, so a release-to-release trend in your own data is a more reliable decision input.
What is the difference between day-1 retention and day-1 rolling retention?
Day-1 retention counts users who return exactly on day 1. Rolling day-1 retention counts users who return any time within day 0–1. Rolling numbers are higher because they include same-day returns. Make sure you know which method your analytics tool uses.
Related terms
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