Why ARPDAU beats total revenue
Total revenue mixes growth and monetization together. ARPDAU isolates monetization, so a UA push that floods the app with low-quality installs shows up immediately as a falling number even while revenue rises.
Reading the mix
The ad-versus-IAP split tells you which risks you're carrying.
- • Ad-led apps are exposed to eCPM seasonality — Q1 is reliably softer than Q4.
- • IAP-led apps concentrate revenue in payers, so a small churned cohort can wreck a month.
- • Rewarded video is usually the highest-eCPM placement and the least damaging to retention.
- • Small commission tiers and web checkout materially change net IAP — set the store cut accordingly.
ARPDAU and user acquisition
ARPDAU × expected lifetime days is your rough LTV. If that number sits below fully loaded CPI, no amount of creative testing fixes the campaign — monetization has to move first.
Related guides
Long-form playbooks on the same topic, written by the RevenueLab editorial team.
YouTube RPM by Niche in 2026: What Creators Actually Earn per 1,000 Views
A breakdown of typical YouTube RPM ranges across 12 niches — from finance and B2B SaaS at the top to gaming and entertainment at the bottom — and the levers that move them.
Read the guideWebsite Ad Revenue in 2026: AdSense RPM, Direct Deals, and What Actually Pays
How website ad revenue really stacks up — AdSense and Ezoic RPM ranges by niche, viewability and fill-rate math, and when direct sponsorships out-earn programmatic by 5–10×.
Read the guideRevenue Model Glossary: 40 Terms Every Operator Should Know (CPM, RPM, ARPU, LTV, CAC, ROAS…)
Plain-English definitions for the 40 revenue-modeling terms that show up across creator, SaaS, ecommerce, and ads — with the exact formula, a worked example, and the most common misuse for each.
Read the guideFAQ
What's a good ARPDAU?
It depends entirely on genre. Hyper-casual lives around $0.01–$0.05, casual hybrid $0.05–$0.20, and midcore can exceed $1. Compare against your own trend before comparing against anyone else's.
Should ARPDAU be gross or net?
Use net of the store commission for IAP, as this calculator does. Ad revenue is already reported net by most networks.
How is ARPDAU different from ARPU?
ARPU is usually monthly and per registered or active user; ARPDAU is strictly daily revenue divided by daily actives, which makes it far more sensitive to short-term changes.
Does ARPDAU include subscriptions?
Yes — spread the subscription's daily value into ARPPU, or model subscribers as a payer cohort with a small daily spend.
How this calculator is built
Independently maintained
Written by Sam Doshi and the RevenueLab editorial team. We don't sell the data feeds this tool is built on.
Sourced from primary data
Benchmarks come from public AdSense / Stripe / IRS disclosures and reader-submitted data — never third-party "$X per view" claims. Full methodology.
Last editorial review
Reviewed on a rolling quarterly cycle. Dated reviews are published on the methodology record for each calculator.
Editorial standards
See our editorial policy and disclaimer. Results are estimates, not advice.