Retention Rate

The share of players still active N days after acquisition — the curve whose area is, roughly, the business.

Retention curves (D7, D30, M2, M3…) track cohort survival, and their shape determines LTV more than any acquisition metric.

Benchmarks and levers

Gambling D30 retention varies enormously by product and market, making internal cohort-over-cohort trends more useful than industry folklore. Levers live in product (payment friction, game portfolio, CRM cadence) and in acquisition mix — retention differences between traffic sources routinely dwarf differences between CRM campaigns, which is why retention-by-affiliate belongs in every program’s quality scoring and every serious deal renegotiation.